CHAPTER NINETEEN.
FELGATE, THE CHAMPION OF THE OPPRESSED.
It spoke well for Railsford's growing influence with his boys that as soon as he returned to his post every sign of mutiny disappeared, and the house seemed to regain that spirit of ambition and self-reliance which had characterised the last days of the previous term.

A few knotty questions, as the reader knows, were awaiting the Master of the Shell on his arrival, but he took them one at a time, and not having been involved in the previous altercations respecting them, disposed of them a great deal more easily than had been expected.
Things had been coming to a climax rather rapidly between Felgate and Ainger.

Not that Felgate had committed any unusual offence, or that Ainger had discovered anything new about him which he had not known before; but during the last few weeks of last term, and the opening days of the present, the two had crossed one another's paths frequently, and with increasing friction.

Ainger was one of those fellows who, when their mind is set on a thing, seem to lose sight of all but two persons--the person who can help them most and the person who can hinder them most.
In the present case Ainger's heart was set on making his house the crack house of Grandcourt.

The person who could help him most was Railsford, and the person who could hinder him most was Felgate.