Page:Stanwood Pier--Crashaw brothers.djvu/50

34 Edward transmitted these messages.

“We’ll stand him on his head for that,” said Blanchard. “Tell him I said so.”

Gradually, from observation and from the gossip of the old boys, of Lawrence and others,  Edward began to understand what Blanchard  had meant by his remarks about Durant. It was apparent that Durant had his own faction  in the School, and was jealous of the larger  and more influential one led by Blanchard,  into which Edward had been adopted. Moreover, Durant had been a candidate for the captaincy of the School eleven and had lost  to Blanchard by a narrow margin of votes; with his quick, hot temper he had never quite won the confidence of the fellows as Blanchard had done.

He had been bitterly disappointed by the defeat and had ever since maintained a rather distant manner toward the boy who had frustrated his ambition. So it was natural enough that any protégé of Blanchard’s should not  advance far into Durant’s favor.

Yet Edward could not help admiring Dur-