Читать книгу Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters - Daniel Stashower, Исмаил Шихлы - Страница 84

Hurray! I have passed all right. The post from London came late today, and the excitement among the boys to hear the news was fearful. At quarter to ten the post came, and the packet was taken to the rector as is the custom. For nearly quarter an hour [sic], which seemed to us poor fellows an age, the rector was perusing the news in his room. We could stand it no longer and pulling open the door of the playroom, regardless of the howls of the prefects, we dashed along the gallery up the stairs, and along the corridor to the door of the rector’s room. There were between forty and fifty of us, not all candidates, but many whose brothers or relations had gone up. There we crowded round the door all pushing and yelling. The door opened and the rector was seen inside waving the packet over his head. Immediately a tremendous cheer rung along the gallery, and dozens of handkerchiefs were tossed in the air, for we knew the news must be good. When the uproar had a little subsided, the old grey haired prefect of studies, more than sixty years old, got up on a chair and announced that of fourteen who had gone up thirteen had passed, the most that has ever passed since Stonyhurst was Stonyhurst. When Fr Kingdon tried to lead off another cheer his poor cracked voice failed him, but we soon drowned his hideous squeaks by tremendous cheers. I have shaken hands with every fellow in the house almost. I am now Arthur C. Doyle u.g. Somebody remarked I ought to add LY and then I would be UGLY.

The places are not given until next Sunday. Those who do unusually well are said to be in Honours. Those who do very well are in the first class, and those who do well are in the second class. My ambition is to get in the First Class.

Arthur Doyle undergraduate of the Royal London University