CHAPTER XV
A VILLAGE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF
FROM the hour that Smith won the cricket match against Upper Saxton Little Bilstead became a village divided against itself.
The sporting section of the community, and Little Bilstead was intensely sporting in the matter of its an- nual trial of strength with Upper Saxton, went over to Smith in a body. Little Bilstead Society, however, showed a nicer discrimination between the relative claims of match-winning and morals.
Colonel Enderby was not the man to be influenced by "mob-worship," as he called it, and the sudden popu- larity of Smith rendered him almost apoplectic with rage. He drank many whiskies-and-sodas, which re- acted upon his liver, and his liver in turn affected his temper.
There was between Colonel Enderby and peace with Alfred Warren a linen line of fluttering filminess. He had been known to swear audibly in a crowded thor- oughfare at the sight of a shop-window dressed for the part of a "Great White Sale," and to the astonish- ment of the passers-by. Nothing could wipe out the memory of what he regarded as, not only an insult to himself, but an affront to the army.
When Tom Bassingthwaighte delivered to the Colonel his letters on the morning after Smith had
made cricket history for Little Bilstead, he had added
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