Page 68 - of-human-bondage-

XII

s time went on Philip’s deformity ceased to interest.
AIt was accepted like one boy’s red hair and another’s
unreasonable corpulence. But meanwhile he had grown
horribly sensitive. He never ran if he could help it, because
he knew it made his limp more conspicuous, and he adopt-
ed a peculiar walk. He stood still as much as he could, with
his club-foot behind the other, so that it should not attract
notice, and he was constantly on the look out for any ref-
erence to it. Because he could not join in the games which
other boys played, their life remained strange to him; he
only interested himself from the outside in their doings;
and it seemed to him that there was a barrier between them
and him. Sometimes they seemed to think that it was his
fault if he could not play football, and he was unable to
make them understand. He was left a good deal to himself.
He had been inclined to talkativeness, but gradually he be-
came silent. He began to think of the difference between
himself and others.
The biggest boy in his dormitory, Singer, took a dislike
to him, and Philip, small for his age, had to put up with a
good deal of hard treatment. About half-way through the
term a mania ran through the school for a game called Nibs.
It was a game for two, played on a table or a form with steel
pens. You had to push your nib with the finger-nail so as to