Sinister Street, vol. 2

e visible expression of his own mental image of Oxford's completeness, to pierce in one dazzling moment of realization th

by the intensity of his evocation to recognize perfectly that uncapturable quintessence of human

it contained of ability to vex other people that last hour hung a little heavily upon the enthusiasts. Slowly, however, the sky lightened: slowly the cold hues and blushes of the sun's youth, that stood as symbol for so much here in St. Mary's, made of the east one great shell of lucent color. The gray stones of the college lost the mysterious outlines of dawn and sharpened slowly to a rose-warmed vitality. The choir boys gathered like twittering birds at th

ths and sang just exactly, Michael said to himself, like the morning stars. The rising sun sent ray upon ray lancing over the roofs of the outspread city until with all its spires and towers, with all its domes and houses and still, unpopulous streets it sparkled like the sea. The hymn was sung: the choir boys

t he had the right to stand. Intoxicated with repressed adoration, the undergraduates sent hurtling outward into

unt far afield. It was a little dull to sit down to breakfast in the college shorn of revelers, and for another two hours unlikely to show any sign of life on the part of those who had declined for sleep the excitement of eating dressed crab and playing bridge through the vigil. After breakfast it would still be only about seven o'clock with a hot-eyed languor to anticipate during the rest of the morning. Michael almost decided to go to bed. He turned disconsolately out o

fused to attend Maurice's mannered breakfast. Soon he fell asleep, and when he woke the morning had gone and it was time for lunch. Michael felt magnificently at ease with the country after his rest, and when he had eaten at the inn, he went back to the river's bank and slept away two hours more. Then for a while in the afternoon, so richly endowed with warmth and shadows that it seemed to have stolen a summer disguise, he walked about level water-

t in the inn garden that was faintly melodious with the plash of the river and perfumed with white stocks. A distan

ut on the table by the serving-maid, and he ate absently with his eyes still fixed upon his paper. Michael wondered if he were trying to solve a cipher and regretted his preoccupation, since the longer he spent in his silent company the more keenly he felt the attraction of this strange youth with the tumbled hair and drooping lids an

chael, unable to keep silence any longer i

better, I'd read you the six alternative versions. But if I read

he would like to h

made you come to this inn? I didn't know that anybody else ex

a nod announc

find the youngest dons and the o

rse is true of St. Mar

r met is a St. Mary's man. I refer to the

a friend of mine. He's keen on s

e's asked me to be one of the forty

"But instead I'm going to subscribe some

red with me because I always unhesitatingly go two pounds better than the biggest juggler of avoirdupois present. Have you ever thought of the romance in Troy mea

ith the largest roast chicken he had ever seen. "I th

de back together,"

nd then with half-a-moon high in the heavens they scudded back to Ox

any Balliol pe

s who had been the fruit of his

t more than I do myself. I think they have a vague idea they're keeping a chapel,

n. It was impossible to say at once how many were present because the only light was given by two gig

was dimly aware of multitudinous nods of greeting and an unan

ng of the Chandos, Guy?" the chorus sigh

id Hazlewood. "But I supp

eeling embarrassed by the implie

ty, and the five hundred and fiftieth meeting will have to be held somewhere else. I call up

id Comeragh. "You know you yourself

d. "The first I've had in a day's fishing

e paper, while the host and reader searched de

rainger and Lonsdale for any other society in Oxford; but he was glad to think that Hazlewood and his rooms existed. He lay back in a deep armchair watching the candlelight flicker over the tapestries, and the shadows of the listeners in giant size upon their martial and courtly populations. He heard in half-a-dream the level voice of Hazlewood enunciating his theories in graceful singing sentences, and the occasional fizz of a replenished glass. The tobacco smoke grew thicker and thicker, curling in spirals about the emaciated loveliness of an ivory saint. The paper was

made up his mind to examine more closely at leisure this atmosphere, so that from it he might extract the quintessential spirit.

ng exhaustive researches into the social aspects of Oxford l

ssential Balliol?"

rt of spirit, slightly filtered down through moder

for a little m

him at least enough taste not to be ashamed of poetry, give him also enough energy not to be ashamed of football

ion serve for yours

no! I'm utterly deficient

is new friend after promising very soon to come to lu

reliminary circular of The Oxford Looking-Glass. Both the promoters insisted that Michael

began, "is intended to reflect co

dderburn interrupted, in bass

ndergraduate thought' is too pretentious. The question is whether you can see a ghost in a mirror, f

escended to reply to his criticis

king-Glass will reflect will be Literature

rotten sentence,"

d. "What Wedders and I have been trying to do all the evening is

smiling. "Now I'm be

at the opinion of those who are 'knocki

open to people standing outside a door

protested simultaneously, "will you shut

bsen?" fretfully demanded Maurice. "That the opinion of those who are knock

a mirror; unless it's a glass door, and if it's a glass door, they oughtn't to be

ownsend (B.N.C.). I haven't asked him yet, as a matter of fact, but he's sure to join because he's very keen on Ibsen. W. Mowbray (Univ.). Bill Mowbray's very bucked at the scheme. He's just resigned from the Russell and joined the Canning. They say at the Union that

to talk about," said Mic

solemnly, "he's about the most brilliant man in the Varsity. I'd sooner have him under me than all the rest put together, except of course

zlewood might have a large number of suggestions. "

rogressive pen, was unwilling to surrender the whole of the magazine to drama, especially since under the expanding ambitions of editorship he had come to the conclusion he was a critic himself, and so was the more firmly disinclined to let slip the trenchant opportunity of pulverizing the four or five musical comedies that would pass through the Oxford theater every term. However, Townsend's demand for the drama and nothing but the drama was mitigated by his determination as a

cross the road to the Canning, taking with him half a dozen earnest young converts and galvanizing with new hopes and new ambitions the Oxford Tories now wilting under the strain of the Boer war. Mowbray managed to impart to any enterprise the air of a conspiracy, and Michael never saw him arrive at a meeting of The Oxford Looking-Glass without feeling they should all assume cloaks and masks and mutter with heads close toge

since much of his obvious and youthful charm might have been buried beneath absurdities which in those reckless decadent days were carried sometimes to moral extremes that destroyed a little of the absurdity. As it was, Stewart was perhaps the most beloved member of Trinity, whether he were feeding Rugger blues on plovers' eggs or keeping an

But what exactly was himself doing on the committee? He could contribute, outside money, nothing of force to help in driving the new magazine along to success. Still, somehow he had allowed his name to appear in the preliminary circular, and next October when the first number was published somehow he would share however ind

gical Jevons emerge in that pool muffled from sight by trellised boughs of white and crimson hawthorn. Seldom did Socrates have better than a most listless audience or St. Paul the most inaccurate geographers, when on the upper river the punt was held against the bank by paddles fast in the mud; for there, as one lay at ease, the world became a world of tall-growing grasses, and the noise of life no more than the monotony of a river's lapping, or along the level water meadows a faint sibilance of

as important was ever spoken during these dreaming nights, and if Michael tried to bring the conversation round to Stella, Alan would always talk of leg-drives and the problems that perpetually presented

certain more brilliant friends whom he would feel bound to introduce to her. Having made up his own mind that Alan represented the perfection of normal youth, he was unwilling to admit dangerous competitors. Besides, though by now he had managed to rid himself of most of his

sessed, herding a long trail of gay sisters and cousins toward his room where even now waited the inevitable salmon mayonnaise. Lonsdale in a moment of filial

h, won't you, and we'll rush them off by the first train possible after the first division is rowed. I was an a

had been a distinguished diplomatist, wa

Lonsdale, coming up to Michael's room

, he had taken to posting, as it were, bu

I think you'd better talk about wine to the governor. It'll buck him rather to think his port has been appreciated. Tell him how screwed we made the bobby th

father, and without fail to support the son at

dale exclaimed, as Lord and Lady Cleveden wi

ted Lord Cleveden cheerfully. "I scarcely ever h

to Michael. "Don't encourage the governor to do too much buzzing aroun

d walking round with Lord Cleveden and listening to his state

p in your time?" asked Michae

n of mine. Poor chap, he died in South Africa. W

chap called Prescott,"

med, "I haven't seen him for years. What an extraord

aware of the question's folly,

e! But it was neve

wishful he had never asked Lo

ere on this, but mine surely were on that one. Let's go up and ask the present owner to let

no," protested his son. "No, no; h

Lord Cleveden agre

zz round St. Mary's before

ere nowadays?" inquired L

died. Look here, we absolutely must buzz round St. Mary's. And our crême

ause Lonsdale knew so little about his own college that he omitted everyt

ackintosh to lunch, Arthur d

said Arthur, "he's

man," said Lady Cleveden, "and always asks

your feelings, mother, about a relation of yours, but Mackintosh is

o eccentric as to dislike entertainment of any kind, and urged a theory that e

onsdale, and with that sentence banishe

e out in a punt. Michael nodded agreement, and weighed down by cushions the party walke

sive and majestic indications of his opinion he disturbed however slightly the equilibrium of the punt. Lonsdale stood up in the stern and handled the ungainly pole with the air of a Surbiton expert. His tendency toward an early rotundity wa

nt was for Michael and uttered in a voice of most laryngeal scorn so audible that the party of New College men involved reddened with dul

required every resource of sangfroid to execute successfully. When he had landed his father and mother and sis

predicted very confidentially. "I told Tommy G

of their own barge, and afterward to behold the victorious boat row past in triumph with the westering sun making g

istol-shots and plaudits had died away. And "Phew!" he sighed, as he and Michael walked slo

hemselves violently to the matter in hand. At the end of the examination, which was characterized by Lonsdale as one of the most low-down exhibitions of in-fi

eal of midsummer madness. Bonfires were lit for the slightest justification, and rowdy suppers were eaten in college after they had stayed on

jority not from any overt act of contumely, but for his general bearing and plebeian origin. This derided Smithers lived on the ground floor of the Palladian fragment known as New Quad.

rsonal slight to repay, since Smithers had been one of the freshmen who had sniggered at his momentary mortification in the rooms of Carben, the Rugby secretary, during his first week. The others were more vaguely injured by Smithers' h

s only Michael felt a slight sense of guilt in profaning this fairy calm with what he admitted to himself might very easily be regarded as a piece of stupid cruelty. Outside Smithers' open window they all stopped; then after hoisting the first man onto the dewy sill, one by one they climbed noiselessly into the si

evidently Smithers' people, photographs like the groups in the parlors

, and forthwith he and Lonsdale collapsed o

dedicated for generations to poor scholars, Michael felt very much inclined to detach himself from the personal ragging of Smithers and go to bed. What seemed to him in this changed mood so particularly sad was that on the evidence of his books Smithers was not sustained by the ascetic glories of learning for the sake of learning. He was evidently no classical scholar with a future of such dignity as would compensate for the scraping and paring of the past. To judge by his books, he w

rtled cockney to know who was there. The reformers were just thinking about their reply, when Smit

sped. "What are you fellers

in order to examine it more closely. The son, supposing he meant to play some trick with it, sprang across the room, snatched it f

e outburst of laughter turned away their thoughts from damaging Smithers' humble proper

t in the park with that picture," said Grainger. "Let's

anxious not to be involved in any affair that might spoil his reputation for e

ho had visions of being sent to explain to a weeping mother in

mbled, and through its verdurous deeps of gia

and as he spoke he caught a glimpse of the white-robed Smithers, running l

ground had roused the Dean, who supported by the nocturnal force of the college servants was advancing against the six disturbers of the summer night. The next hour was an entrancing time of hot pursuit and swift evasion, of crackling dead branches a

ith welcome drink. "I think old Shadbolt recognized me. He said: 'It's no use

ppened to Smither

very asserted. "I don't know why on earth they

ton, who had sloped into the room d

and a disjointed account of the evening'

that poor devil alone?"

usive reason against letting Smithers alone, although Maurice

hrough the medium of Castleton's common sense and Wykehamist notions the ethical and ?sthetic

e three years of idleness for the purpose of giving a so

instance, or Christianity itself. The point surely is not whether it has evolved into something inherently worthless, but whet

ng no purpose at all, if she cannot foster good manners in people who are supposed to be born with a natural tendency toward good manners. I should be the first to regret an Oxford with the Smitherses in the majo

tleton if he had

theoretically these outbursts of rowdy superiority. Now, as I'm beginning to tal

l distinctions, all prejudices and vulgarities became the base and clogging memories of the night before. He felt a sudden guilt in beholding this tranquil college under this tranquil dawn. It seemed, spread out for his solitary vision, too incommunicable a delight.

sy might embarrass Smithers more than ever. Yet, after he had worried himself with this reflection when the invitation had been accepted, he fancied that Smithers sitting on his right hand next to Gu