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Rose looked at him with an embarrassment that made
him angry with Philip.
‘Yes, if you want to.’
‘It’s very kind of you,’ said Philip sarcastically.
‘What d’you want?’
‘I say, why have you been so rotten since I came back?’
‘Oh, don’t be an ass,’ said Rose.
‘I don’t know what you see in Hunter.’
‘That’s my business.’
Philip looked down. He could not bring himself to say
what was in his heart. He was afraid of humiliating himself.
Rose got up.
‘I’ve got to go to the Gym,’ he said.
When he was at the door Philip forced himself to speak.
‘I say, Rose, don’t be a perfect beast.’
‘Oh, go to hell.’
Rose slammed the door behind him and left Philip alone.
Philip shivered with rage. He went back to his study and
turned the conversation over in his mind. He hated Rose
now, he wanted to hurt him, he thought of biting things he
might have said to him. He brooded over the end to their
friendship and fancied that others were talking of it. In his
sensitiveness he saw sneers and wonderings in other fellows’
manner when they were not bothering their heads with him
at all. He imagined to himself what they were saying.
‘After all, it wasn’t likely to last long. I wonder he ever
stuck Carey at all. Blighter!’
To show his indifference he struck up a violent friend-
ship with a boy called Sharp whom he hated and despised.

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