The Go-Between

Today’s reading of the thermometer stands at eighty-four degrees. Leo feels it “could do better”; he’s now “in love with the heat” and “I felt for it what the convert feels for his new religion.” Leo feels, too, that the “climate of his emotions has undergone a change.” He now feels that he belongs to “The Zodiac, not to Southdown School,” which he credits to the company he is keeping. In order to fit in with this new “reality,” he believes his “emotions and behavior … must illustrate this change.”

Marcus isn’t around, and neither are any of the adults (“the companions of the Zodiac”). Left to his own devices, Leo decides to take the path that heads towards the bathing-place. He arrives at the water-meadow where the previous swimming expedition had been. It now seems a lot drier than before, and there’s nobody around. He takes another path through the rushes and finds himself in a cornfield. The swathes of corn have been recently reaped; those still lying on the ground look different to the ones near his home, confirming in him the “sense of being abroad.”

Eventually finding Ted’s farm, Leo sees a huge stack of straw with a ladder running up it. He half wants to climb it and slide down, because that’s what schoolboys would do and he “could not help acting as if the eyes of the whole school were on” him.

Leo slides down the stack, feeling the “wild rush through the air, so near to flying.” But on the way down his knee hits something hard: a chopping-block. The blood flows from the gash, and Leo is in considerable pain.

Ted suddenly emerges from across the farmyard. He is furious at the sight of an intruder on his farm. Leo frantically tells Ted that they have met before, at the bathing-place. With that knowledge, Ted’s attitude changes instantly from anger to respect: “Then you are from the hall?” he asks.

Ted tells Leo that he had better take care of his wound for him and helps Leo toward the farmhouse. Ted tells Leo that it was lucky his accident happened on Sunday, otherwise he wouldn’t have been near enough to hear Leo’s pained shout when he fell. Leo is upset to know that he shouted, but Ted compliments him, noting that “some lads would have cried.”

Ted asks Leo not to mind if he spoke to him a “bit hasty.” Leo thinks it seems “right, natural and proper” that Ted should change his tone when realizing that Leo is from the Hall. Entering the house, Ted excuses its plainness, saying he’s too busy to make it anything fancy: “I’m not what you call a gentleman farmer, I’m a working one.”

Ted cleans up Leo’s knee, telling him he’s lucky the blood didn’t go on his nice green suit. Leo is hugely relieved and tells Ted that Marian gave him the suit. Ted ties a handkerchief to Leo’s knee and tells him he can keep it.

Feeling that he owes something to Ted for his assistance, Leo asks whether there is anything he can do for him. Leo expects him to say no, but Ted asks Leo whether he could take a message for him, and whether he could wait a minute or two. Leo says he doesn’t need to leave for fifteen minutes or so to get back for tea.

Ted takes Leo to see the horses, introducing each one to him. He stops to give Boxer, the grey horse, a kiss on the nose. The horse shows “its appreciation by dilating its nostrils and breathing hard through them.” Leo asks the name of another horse, which Ted replies is “Wild Oats.” They grin at one another because of the name, though Leo is not sure why it is amusing.

Back in the house, Ted asks Leo how old he is. Leo informs Ted that his thirteenth birthday is at the end of the month. Ted wonders whether he can trust Leo, to which Leo insists that he can. He cites his school-report, which calls him a “trustworthy boy.” Ted asks if Leo can keep a secret, which Leo thinks is a silly question, as secrecy is a big part of a schoolboy’s life.

Ted asks Leo whether he is friendly with Marian, and if he is often alone with her. He then asks Leo whether he is ever close enough to Marian to give her something. As Leo says yes, Ted tells him to wait a moment while he writes a letter for Leo to give to Marian. Ted describes his relationship with Marian as “business.”

Ted writes the letter but tells Leo not to give it to Marian unless he is alone with her. Holding the letter like “a lion guarding something with its paw,” he makes Leo once more promise he will guard it carefully. Leo says he will “defend it with my life.”

Leo realizes that it’s time for him to return to the hall. He puts the letter in one of his pockets and Ted shakes his hand, calling him a “good boy.” Leo asks if he can return to the farm to slide down the straw-stack again, and Ted says he will take special care of it for that purpose. Leo leaves the farm, waving to Ted as he goes.

When Leo returns to Brandham Hall, he informs the others of his accident and of Ted’s kindness in bandaging his knee. Mr. Maudsley remarks that he has heard that Ted is a “good-looking chap,” and Trimingham states that he needs to have word with Ted. Marian sits “hawk-like,” ignoring the discussion of Ted. Suddenly she gets up and tells Leo she will dress the knee for him.

The two of them go to the bathroom. As Marian washes his knee, she asks Leo whether the handkerchief on it is Ted’s. Leo says yes, and offers to throw it on the rubbish-heap, but she insists on washing it out. Leo gives Marian the letter, which she quickly grabs out of his hand. She tells Leo not to talk to anyone about the letter, not even Marcus. If he were to, she says tearfully, it would “get us all into the most frightful trouble.”