Page 88 - a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man

clubs; the dumbbells were piled in one corner: and in the
midst of countless hillocks of gymnasium shoes and sweat-
ers and singlets in untidy brown parcels there stood the
stout leatherjacketed vaulting horse waiting its turn to be
carried up on the stage and set in the middle of the winning
team at the end of the gymnastic display.
Stephen, though in deference to his reputation for essay
writing he had been elected secretary to the gymnasium,
had had no part in the first section of the programme but in
the play which formed the second section he had the chief
part, that of a farcical pedagogue. He had been cast for it on
account of his stature and grave manners for he was now at
the end of his second year at Belvedere and in number two.
A score of the younger boys in white knickers and sin-
glets came pattering down from the stage, through the
vestry and to the chapel. The vestry and chapel were peo-
pled with eager masters and boys. The plump bald sergeant
major was testing with his foot the springboard of the vault-
ing horse. The lean young man in a long overcoat, who was
to give a special display of intricate club swinging, stood
near watching with interest, his silver-coated clubs peep-
ing out of his deep side-pockets. The hollow rattle of the
wooden dumbbells was heard as another team made ready
to go up on the stage: and in another moment the excited
prefect was hustling the boys through the vestry like a flock
of geese, flapping the wings of his soutane nervously and
crying to the laggards to make haste. A little troop of Nea-
politan peasants were practising their steps at the end of the
chapel, some circling their arms above their heads, some

88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man