Sinister Street, vol. 2

initiations, addresses, and all the academic panoply

ide-whiskers and twitching eyelid and manner of exaggerated respect toward undergraduates combined to give

he don's bidding to where he sat sighing amid heaps of papers and statistical sheets. The glacial

James'. Your tutor will be the Dean-please sit down-the D

chael. "History!" he repeated

oredom. "But we have to consider the immediate futur

istory," said Michael, echoing himself invo

snapped the Senior Tutor. "A school reputed t

l interrupted. "And I don't

for the coll

ecided I was to read Chi

derations. You will attend my lectures on Cicero, Mr. Churton on the Apologia, Mr. Carder on Logic, and Mr. Ver

and dining in hall and the various regulations of the college, whi

aid the Senior Tutor, and Michael left him.

like?" aske

ull," sai

keep yo

shook

ly. "Because I've just bought a dog

do with the Senior Tutor, but relinquished the proble

at it was made slightly more tolerable by the help of a cigarette, was of much th

ttle keenness,"

ael. "Though what good it will be for me to read the Pro Milone and t

Moderations?" t

e was beginning to burn his fingers and the problem of dispos

s way downstairs from his

, what did h

ery much like schoolmasters,"

ould keep a dog in college, and he turned as blue as an owl. A

tatuta et Decreta Universitatis. This book they carried back with them to college, where in many rooms it shared with Ruff's Guide and Soapy Sponge's Sporting Tour an intellectual oligarchy. Saturday morning was spent in meeting the Warden at the Warden's Lodgings, where they shook hands with him in nervous qua

k. But all of you have come to Oxford to remain English gentlemen. In after life when you are ambassadors and proconsuls and members of Parliament you will never remember this little addr

s in their high golden frames seemed in the dusk faintly to nod approval. The bell was ringing for evening chapel, and the freshmen went murmurously along the cloisters to take thei

of conversation was the etiquette a

e was of the sparkish Lonsdale, was a gloomy fellow scornful of the general merriment. As someb

oming to the J. C.

my time trying to keep sober for

would have enlightened him on several points he had not yet mastered in the ceremony of wine in the J. C. R. However, it was useless to speculate on such subjects in the c

al revolutions round a Swedish man of science, and sent the butler down to whisper a remonstrance to the head of one of the second-year tables. But no sooner had the butler again taken his place behind the Warden's chair than a number of third-year men whose table had be

ngles to one another, and the President sat near their apex. All along their shining length at regular intervals stood great dishes of grapes richly bloomed, of apples and walnuts and salted almonds and deviled biscuits. The freshmen by instinct rushed to sit altogether at the end of the table more remote from the door. As

of them who had known these heroes at school sat anxiously unaware of their presence and spoke of them familiarly as Jack Permain and Bingey. There were several other cynosures from New College and University near the President's ch

for a time the decanters would swing vigorously from hand to hand. Then suddenly Marjoribanks was seen to be bowing to Permain, and Permain was bowing solemnly back to his host. This was a plain token to everybody that the moment for drinking healths had arrived. A great babe

rative steadiness of his head. Already in the case of one or two reckless mixers he noticed a difficulty in deciding how many times it was necessary to clip

e sat back in his chair with an expression, Michael thought, very like that of an actress who has been handed a bouquet by the conductor. But Cuffe was not to be the only recipient of honor, for immediately afterward Marjoribanks sang out "Lonsdale!" Lon

d Lonsdale indignantly. "Can

th," whispered Michael in an agony

s the old ripper!" Then "Mark over!" he shouted and collapsed into Tommy Grainger's lap. Everybody laughed, and e

g Lonsdale," they

od up, and, balancing himself with on

? No legs, you mean!" T

glass. Michael blushed, blessed his unknown acquaintance inwardly and drank what was possibly the sincerest sentiment of the evening. Other senior men hearing his name, followed suit, even the great Marjoribanks himself; and soon Michael was very nearly as full as Lonsdale. An immense elation caressed his soul, a boundless sense of communal life, a conception of sublime freedom that seemed to be illimitable forev

ous zest in doing nothing, and there flowed over him a consciousness that this existence of shout and dance along these cloisters was really existence lived in a perpetual expression of the finest energy. The world seemed to be going round so much faster than usual that in order to keep up with this new pace, it was necessary for the individual like himself to walk faster, to talk faster, to think faster, and finally to raise to incoherent speed every coherent faculty. Another curious effect of the

lly full, and the dog isn't large-of course I don't expect to k

rd," Micha

is, when one scout's box is full, move the poor little beast into another. It isn't likely they'd all be f

f they were all full they could chain

. I don't think I've asked very many chaps: I want to show you that dog. He's in a stable off Holywell at present. Beastly shame!

n his gravest voice that over a genuine woodcut by Dürer it was well worth taking trouble. But before Michael could dis

bucketing! Bow, you're late! Two

ether he knew what was the matter with the crew. Michael shook his head a

runk to row,"

runk," Mich

, the more he wanted to laugh. When somebody asked him what he was laughing at, he replied it was because he had left the electric light burning in his room. Several peopl

drunk, and they're co

they joined in choruses: they cheered and smoked cigars and grew more and more conscious as the evening progressed that they belonged to a great college called St. Mary's. Their enthusiasm reached its zenith, when the captain of the Varsity Eleven (a St. Mary's man even as they were St. Mary's men) sang the St. Mary's song in a voice whose gentleness of utterance and sighing modesty in no way abashed the noisy appreciation of the audience. It was a wonderful song, a

se although Lonsdale had taken several lemon squashes to steady himself, he had not taken enough to keep his balance through the ultimate energetic repetition, when he collapsed headlong int

l was tanned by the numberless bonfires of past generations the pile of wood grew taller and taller: two or three douches of paraffin made the mass readily inflammable: a match was set, and with a roar the bonfire began. From their windows second-year men, their faces lighted by the ascending blaze, looked down with pleasant patronage upon the traditional pastime of their juniors. The freshmen danced gleefully round the pyre of their boyhood, feeding it with faggots and sometimes daringly and ostentatiously with chairs:

as they faded into various doorways, ready to obliterate the

nd bellowed more fiercely than ever, lighting up with its wavy radiance the great elms beyond the Warden's g

n on to his nose and round his neck a gown wrapped like a shawl. Nearer he came, and involuntarily the freshmen so lately schoolboys took on in their attitude a cer

e only remained about eight freshmen to ascertain his views and test his power. The Dean stood for a minute or two, silently war

Fane?" aske

r," Micha

ally in Michael's ear. "You couldn't have

n to feel he had indeed said something very good, but he hoped

f, Mr. Lonsdale?"

e you?" answe

," murmur

aggots. Under-porters were seen drawing near with pails of water, and though a cushion aimed from a window upset one pail, very soon the bonfire

an-he was the Dean! The Dean-he was the

f the glee, but took another glance at Michael, Lonsdale

tall hunched don, and not being successful in luring him back,

rotters. Come down

t for their pusillanimity by throwing two syphons and his gown into the Warden's garden. After which he invited Michael a

asked if anybody had been ha

e Lonsdale," he informed the inquirer. T

enience of keeping everybody up on the first Sunday of term. "And if you feel aggri

greatly enjoyed telling what had happened to the other freshmen and several second-year men. I