The day after next he and his parents would travel seventy miles from London to inspect his new school. The term would not begin for several days. The other boys would not be there. He was glad, for the thought of them made his stomach contract. The word ‘boys’, boys en masse, conferred on them an authority, a thuggish power. When his father referred to them as ‘lads’ they became taller in his thoughts, stringier, irresponsibly strong.
