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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38694-8.txt b/38694-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5a270e --- /dev/null +++ b/38694-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7609 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Binney, by Archibald Marshall + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Peter Binney + A Novel + +Author: Archibald Marshall + +Release Date: January 27, 2012 [EBook #38694] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER BINNEY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +PETER BINNEY + +A NOVEL + + +BY + +ARCHIBALD MARSHALL + + + + +NEW YORK + +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY + +1921 + + + + +PUBLISHED 1921 IN U. S. A. + +BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. + + + + First Printing, September, 1921 + Second Printing, October, 1921 + Third Printing, December, 1921 + Fourth Printing, January, 1922 + + + + PRINTED IN THE USA BY + The Quinn & Boden Company + BOOK MANUFACTURERS + RAHWAY NEW JERSEY + + + + +TO + +E. F. BENSON + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +It is over twenty years since "Peter Binney" was first published in +England, and I should be unwilling to offer it to my American readers +at this time of day without some plea for leniency towards a young +man's book, which contains perhaps more than the average number of +crudities to be found in such beginnings. A few of the crudities I +have been able to soften, but if you begin tampering with early work in +the light of maturer knowledge, you are very apt to rub off the bloom +that attaches to it just because it is early work, written with spirit +and freshness, though with little skill. So I have left "Peter Binney" +much as it was, with most of its imperfections on its head, and I trust +some compensating merits. + +One merit I know it to possess. It presents a picture of the lighter +side of undergraduate life as it was in Oxford and Cambridge, and as it +still exists, in spite of superficial changes; and that is something +that can only be done by a young man, whose memories are still fresh, +and to whom that life is still important enough to make it the basis of +a story. + +New York, July, 1921 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I Mr. Binney Makes Up His Mind + II Mr. Binney Interviews One Tutor, and Engages Another + III Lucius Wins a Year's Respite + IV No Help To Be Gained from Mrs. Higginbotham + V Mr. Binney Arrives in Cambridge + VI Lord Blathgowrie Has Something to Say + VII Mr. Binney Speaks at the Union And Makes a Distinguished Acquaintance + VIII The Newnham Girl + IX Mr. Binney Gives a Dinner and Receives a Rebuff + X "The New Court Chronicle" + XI "Put Him in the Fountain" + XII Lucius Makes One Discovery and Mrs. Toller Another + XIII Mr. Binney Gets into Trouble + XIV Nemesis + XV Lucius Finds a Backwater + XVI Third Trinity Makes a Bump + XVII Mr. Binney Drinks the Health of a "Blue" + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MR. BINNEY MAKES UP HIS MIND + +"I'll do it to-day," said Peter Binney. + +He had been sitting deep in thought ever since he had climbed on to the +omnibus outside his place of business in the Whitechapel Road. As the +vehicle pursued its ponderous way through the crowded streets of the +City, stopping now and again to add to its load of homeward-bound +business men, Mr. Binney sat in his seat, silent and preoccupied, his +eyes on the ground and a thoughtful frown on his face. As it left the +Post Office, full inside and out, and bowled smartly along the broad +asphalted road towards the Viaduct, his face cleared, the light of +determination shone in his eye, and looking up, he said aloud:-- + +"I'll do it to-day." + +His fellow passengers gazed at him in surprise, and a young lady who +sat by his side, heavily fringed and feathered, and laden with a huge +cardboard box, laughed a coarse laugh, and said: + +"That's right, guv'nor, don't you put it off no longer." + +Mr. Binney had not intended to express his determination aloud, and the +notice his remark had drawn annoyed him. As the young lady was +apparently turning over in her mind further witticisms, he decided to +leave the omnibus and walk the rest of the way to his house in Russell +Square. He made his way slowly down the unsteady stairs, and the young +lady said: + +"A good cup o' beef tea's what _you_ want, George, and don't forgit the +'ot-water bottle," and as the omnibus pursued its way, leaving him +walking briskly along the pavement, she leant over the side and called +out, "Git Mariar to put a mustard plaster on yer chest," which made the +people on the omnibus laugh, although Mr. Binney could see no humour in +the remark. + +He had come, however, to such a momentous decision during the last +half-hour that by the time he had gone a dozen steps he had ceased to +feel any irritation at the young lady's pleasantries, and walked +smartly along, his brain all on fire with his mighty purpose. + +Peter Binney was a small man of about forty-five years of age. His +hair was gingery, and his whiskers decidedly red. He looked rather +like a little bantam-cock as he strutted along, and this was a curious +coincidence, for he had made his fortune by selling poultry food. + +Every one has heard of Binney's Food for Poultry. Indeed it would be +quite impossible for anybody who is able to read to be unaware of its +existence, for its fame is blazoned on every hoarding in the United +Kingdom. It was Peter Binney who first conceived the idea of advancing +the cause of art and advertising his wares at the same time. In the +early days, when the future world-famed business was just emerging from +its chrysalis state of a little cornchandler's shop in the +neighbourhood of the East India Docks, he was content to publish a +picture of a simpering young woman in a quilted satin petticoat and +dancing shoes, feeding a number of plethoric hens in a very clean +farmyard. But when the shop became a factory and Mr. Binney's keen +business capacity began to tell, he issued his celebrated series of +"Raphael's Cartoons for the Home," across the sky of each of which ran +the inscription, "Binney's Food for Poultry." After a little time he +published an edition of the "Plays of Shakespeare," in which all the +passages that Mr. Bowdler would have omitted were ingeniously converted +by Mr. Binney into eulogies on his Food for Poultry. Poultry and taste +were alike fed by Mr. Binney, and his business flourished accordingly. +At the age of forty-five he found himself a rich man, with a house in +Russell Square, a family tomb in Kensal Green Cemetery (tenanted at +present only by his wife), and a son who was being educated at Eton. + +But to return to the present time and Mr. Binney's purpose. When he +had let himself into the house in Russell Square, he rang the bell and +inquired of the parlour-maid who answered it if Mr. Lucius was at home. +Hearing that he was not, Mr. Binney seemed somewhat relieved, and went +straight up into his dressing-room, where he put on the coat and +trousers generally reserved for Sunday wear, and exchanged his dark tie +for a brilliant red one. Then he looked at his boots, and hesitated. +They were neat enough, but they had lost the sober brilliance of the +morning. There was a row of similar boots freshly blacked under the +dressing-table, but even these must have wanted something in Mr. +Binney's eyes, for after looking at them thoughtfully he shook his +head, and opening the door stole quietly out and upstairs into a room +above his own. It was rather an untidy room and evidently occupied by +a young man of athletic tastes, to judge by the dumb-bells and Indian +clubs, cricket-bats, guncases and fishing-rods that littered the +corners. There was a row of boots and shoes under the dressing-table +here too, and among them a pair of shining patent leathers. Mr. Binney +made his way across the room on tiptoe, and seizing the boots, trees +and all, retreated with them hurriedly to his own room, where he sat +down and put them on. They were a good deal too big, but an extra pair +of winter socks set that right, and when Mr. Binney had buttoned them +he stood up on a chair and surveyed himself in the glass with +considerable satisfaction. "I must get a pair like that," he said. +Then he went downstairs, and putting on his best hat and gloves, and +taking his best umbrella out of the stand, he left the house. + +Turning to the left, Mr. Binney made his way towards Woburn Square. If +he had looked the other way as he came out of his house he would have +seen his son Lucius coming towards him not fifty yards off. Lucius was +very unlike his father. He was a good-looking boy of about eighteen, +tall and slim, with blue eyes and a pleasant smiling mouth fringed with +a few fair downy hairs, of which he always spoke collectively. He was +very popular among his school-fellows, and was commonly known by the +name of "Lucy." + +"Halloa!" he said to himself as he caught sight of his father coming +down the steps of the parental mansion. "Where's the governor off to, +I wonder! Looks jolly smart, too. S'pose he's going to call on that +old woman. Jove! he's got a pair of shiny boots on. I say, governor, +you're going it! They're a bit too big for you though, my boy. Shall +I give him a hail? Think I won't. He might want me to go and call on +the old tabby with him." + +So Lucius let himself into the house and went upstairs. As he passed +his father's room, the door of which was open, he looked in and saw +that the floor was littered with the component parts of a pair of +boot-trees. "Didn't know the governor went in for those luxuries," he +said to himself. Then a sudden thought struck him; he went in and took +up one of the pieces. "Well, I'm hanged!" he said in a tone of deep +annoyance. "They _are_ mine. And he's actually got on my boots. +There's a piece of nerve for you! There'll be a row when you get home, +young man. I really can't stand that, you know." And Lucius went out +of his father's room very much annoyed. + +We left Mr. Binney making his way towards Woburn Square. He walked on +until he came to a house with a brightly-painted blue door, where he +rang the bell and asked if Mrs. Higginbotham was at home. The maid +treated him with the subdued cordiality of an old acquaintance and led +him straight upstairs to Mrs. Higginbotham's drawing-room, where her +mistress was discovered warming her feet at a bright fire, and reading +the _Christian World_. She was a stout, middle-aged lady, and wore a +dress of rich black silk. The room wore an air of warm, solid comfort. +Its decorations would not have satisfied the late Mr. William Morris, +it is true, but as they completely satisfied Mrs. Higginbotham, that +was not a matter of great importance. + +"Dear me, Mr. Binney, this is very kind of you," said Mrs. +Higginbotham, rising to greet her visitor. + +Mr. Binney shook hands with her and took the chair to which she had +motioned him. He did not speak, but the compressed upper lip and the +thoughtful look with which he regarded Mrs. Higginbotham caused a +slight fluttering in that lady's ample bosom. With a woman's instinct +she immediately knew as surely as if he had already told her what he +had come to say. "He's going to do it to-day," she said to herself, +and true to the tactics of her sex she set herself at once to ward off +the critical moment as long as possible. She plunged into conversation +of the sprightly religious order, for Mrs. Higginbotham was a good +woman and could talk by the hour together of preachers and movements +and causes, in which conversation Mr. Binney was quite capable of +holding his own, for he and Mrs. Higginbotham sat under the same +preacher and held the same theological views. There was another point +in common between them, and while Mrs. Higginbotham is struggling to +maintain a bright and lively conversation, to which Mr. Binney replies +only by terse monosyllables, there will be time to explain what this +was. + +Both Mr. Binney and Mrs. Higginbotham had a soul above their +surroundings. In the case of Mr. Binney this has already been +indicated by the way in which, while conducting his business on the +most approved lines of commercial progress, he essayed to import into +it something better and nobler than the mere pushing of his wares and +the piling up of a fortune. Those cartoons from Raphael had infused a +love of art into many humble homes, and not a few minds had been +enriched by the perusal of Binney's Shakespeare (a play given away with +every sack of his food for poultry), to such an extent that the +deterioration of eyesight brought about by the quality of paper and +print with which those masterpieces were issued was a very small matter +in consideration of the mental enlightenment which had been diffused +throughout the country. + +Mrs. Higginbotham's aspirations were not of so educational a character. +Her literary yearnings were satisfied by the weekly appearance of the +_Family Herald Supplement_, to which event she looked forward regularly +with great pleasure. That excellent periodical never made its +appearance in her drawing-room, although sundry works of fiction from +the lending library round the corner, dealing with the habits and +customs of the aristocracy, did. Mrs. Higginbotham's father had been a +draper in a small way of business, and her husband, beginning life in +her father's shop, by the time he died had become a draper in a very +large way. Wealth and luxury had been Mrs. Higginbotham's lot for many +years, but what she yearned for was the larger, freer life led by those +happy beings of whom she read in her chosen novels. To be able to look +upon a lord without blinking; to be able to look upon lords every day +of your life; to have it said in a newspaper, "I saw Mrs. 'Fluffy' +Higginbotham" (Fluffy had been the term of endearment enjoyed by the +late Mr. Higginbotham) "sitting under the Achilles Statue in a +plum-coloured gown with lettuce-green _revers_;" to have cards of +invitation pouring in, every other one illuminated by a title; to +regard the London season as something more than the time of year when +the days were getting longer and it would soon be time to think about +going to the seaside--comfortable as Mrs. Higginbotham's circumstances +were, her life had been singularly devoid of these delights. + +And this was not all. Mrs. Higginbotham was romantic. She revelled in +a love-story. She adored the Apollo-like heroes of her favourite +fiction with an ungrudging wealth of admiration, and she envied hardly +less the blushing heroines on whom they lavished the stores of their +magnificent affections. Mrs. Higginbotham felt that it ought to be the +lot of every girl to be a blushing heroine at one time of her life. +She felt that she herself had been unjustly deprived of that privilege, +although she had been an attractive girl, and, if she read the +expression in Peter Binney's eyes rightly, was attractive still. The +late Mr. Higginbotham had been a good husband to her, but his actual +proposal had been of the "Here I am--Take me if you like--If you don't +there are plenty that will, and only too glad to get the chance" order. +She _had_ taken him, but he had never satisfied the romantic cravings +of her nature. She, on her part, had been a good wife to him, but so +far as she was aware he had never, from first to last, regarded her as +a heroine, or if he had he had never shown it. + +Would Peter Binney do more? Was it too late to hope that a whiff of +the fragrant breezes of romance might yet blow upon her? Mrs. +Higginbotham scarcely knew. There was a something in the little man +that inclined her to think that he would not be averse to dally in the +Indian summer of a romantic courtship if she made it quite plain to him +that that was what she required; and there was a something, in spite of +his diminutive stature and the byegone forty-five years of his +successful life, in the fire of his eye and in his erect and proud +bearing, that whispered to Mrs. Higginbotham's heart that she might, by +guarding the sensation with extreme care, bring herself to regard him +as a very good substitute for the youthful adorer who it was almost too +much to hope would come forward at this time of day. + +While these questions passed through her mind, Mrs. Higginbotham went +on talking, and Mr. Binney, answering her without knowing in the least +what she was talking about, mentally braced himself up for the proposal +he was about to make. At last he broke into the middle of one of Mrs. +Higginbotham's sentences, and said in a firm and resolute voice, "Mrs. +Higginbotham, ma'am." + +Mrs. Higginbotham saw that the time had come, and gave up the struggle. + +"Yes, Mr. Binney?" she said in as cool a tone as she could muster. + +"I am not so young as I was, ma'am," said Mr. Binney. + +"We are none of us that," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "At least not people +at our time of life." + +"You have no reason to complain, ma'am," said Mr. Binney gallantly. + +"My heart is young," said Mrs. Higginbotham, greatly pleased at the +compliment, "and if I am not very much mistaken, yours is also." + +"I hope it is," said Mr. Binney, greatly pleased in his turn; "and on +that account I have a proposal to make to you, ma'am, which I hope you +will consider favourably." + +"I'm sure I shall do that, whatever it is," said Mrs. Higginbotham +comfortably. + +"I hope so," said Mr. Binney again. "The fact is, ma'am, that I have +long regarded you with feelings of interest, which have in the course +of time developed into feelings of affection. I can scarcely hope that +those feelings are returned, but I should wish to ask, ma'am, if there +is any chance in the near or distant future that they might be." + +"Oh, Mr. Binney!" exclaimed Mrs. Higginbotham with a lively +recollection of the heroines of fiction. "This is so sudden." + +"It is, ma'am," said Mr. Binney. "I am aware of that. This sort of +thing _must_ be sudden at some time or another, if it is to result in +bus--I mean if anything is to come of it. I don't wish to press you +for an answer yet. I merely wish to lay my ideas before you. I might +say that I wish to marry again in order to obtain those advantages +which--er--which _come_ from marrying again. I might say that I want +an agreeable companion to sit at the head of my table, to entertain me +with her society in my leisure hours, and to act in the capacity of +mother to my only son. I do want that, but that is not all. I have +worked hard all my life, ma'am, and am now a comparatively rich man. +But I have had very little pleasure in my life. I married my first +wife to please _her_. I want to marry my second to please _myself_. +And I want above all to impart into the affair some of +that--er--_glamour_, which, in my opinion, should envelop all +courtship. I therefore come to you, ma'am, an agreeable and charming +woman, and ask you, not to accept me as a man of good position able to +offer you a comfortable home, which I am aware you have already, but as +a man who, although no longer young, is younger than a good many +people, and who loves you for yourself alone, and would like to take an +opportunity of proving it." + +Could Mrs. Higginbotham believe her ears? If Peter Binney had asked +her to marry him in the way he had suggested, and scouted, she would +have accepted him with a sigh for lost illusions now no longer tenable. +But it really seemed as if that romance for which the poor lady had so +longed was going to be opened up for her, and an ardent swain, in the +person of Peter Binney, Manufacturer of Poultry Food, was ready to +throw himself at her feet and plead for her favour. Mrs. Higginbotham +could scarcely yet grasp the happiness that seemed to be dawning on her +horizon. + +"Do you really love me for myself, Mr. Binney?" she asked with +faltering lips. + +"Say Peter," corrected Mr. Binney. + +"Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham submissively, with a delicious thrill. + +"Yes, I do," said that gentleman. "But I don't want you to accept me +in a hurry, you know," he added hastily. "I want you to try me, to +prove me, to see what I'm made of." He slapped his little breast with +a determined air, and looked round the room as if in search of some +object by means of which he might be proved on the spot. + +Mrs. Higginbotham might have replied that she knew him tolerably well +already, having met him with some frequency for the last twenty years. +But his attitude caused her such a degree of pleasure that she was by +no means prepared to spoil the sensation by reminding him of that fact. +At the same time she was a little nervous and flurried. She had all +the will in the world to prove him, but she didn't quite know how to +set about it. If there had been a crusade handy she might have sent +him off to that, but she could think of no nineteenth century +substitute on the spur of the moment. Mr. Binney had been a Volunteer +in his youth, as he had often told her, but he was one no longer, so +she could not set him to watch his accoutrements all night in a church. +Besides, Mr. Binney went to chapel, and the minister wouldn't have +liked it. She didn't really quite know what he did want, but +fortunately Mr. Binney himself came to the rescue and made himself a +little clearer. + +"Now, Mrs. Higginbotham," he began. "By-the-bye, may I call you +Martha?" + +"Yes, do," said Mrs. Higginbotham. + +"Now, my dear Martha," began Mr. Binney again, "what you have got to do +is to tell me what in your opinion the behaviour of an ideal lover +should be, and what _I_ have got to do is to endeavour to the best of +my ability to act up to your opinion." + +"Well, Peter," began Mrs. Higginbotham, "I must confess that I have +always wished that I had had in my youth a devoted lover who should be +something of a hero." + +"Quite so, quite so," assented Mr. Binney with an energetic nod. "I +shall do my best to be that, my very best." + +"One," continued Mrs. Higginbotham, "whom I could admire +for--er--manliness and--er--light-heartedness, and--er--beauty, both of +form and feature." + +"Exactly so," nodded her wooer. + +"One who would regard me as the most beautiful--er--female in the +world; not that I should be that, of course, but I should like him to +think so." + +"Of course, of course," said Mr. Binney. "Quite natural." + +"And who would try to make little opportunities of meeting me, and +being where I was." + +"Exactly," said Mr. Binney, who had been admitted into Mrs. +Higginbotham's house any time these last twenty years whenever he liked +to present himself. + +"Whose heart would beat quicker when he _did_ see me, and who would be +quite rewarded for any trouble he might have taken over the matter _by_ +seeing me." + +"I quite see, ma'am, I quite see," said Mr. Binney. "The truth of it +is, you want to renew your youth, I take it. Not that it requires much +renewing," he added gallantly. + +"Oh, Peter!" exclaimed Mrs. Higginbotham coyly. + +"And I want to renew _my_ youth, Martha," continued Mr. Binney with +some fervour. "I've worked very hard ever since I was a boy, as you +know, and I never had the fun that I should like to have had, or that +the young fellows I see about me now have--my son, for instance." + +"Dear boy," murmured Mrs. Higginbotham. + +"Dear boy, certainly," acquiesced Mr. Binney, "and _lucky_ boy, too, +Martha. Look what I've done for that boy. I've sent him to Eton, +where _I_ never had a chance of going, or anywhere like it. Why, +Martha, life is one continuous round of pleasure at Eton. And now he +is going to Cambridge. _There's_ a place for you! Why, I assure you, +you could hardly believe the fun that young fellows have at a place +like Cambridge." + +"Yes, I can. I've read books about it," said Mrs. Higginbotham, "and I +had a nephew there once who used to tell me things. Ah, Mr. Binney, if +I were only what I used to be twenty years ago, and you were at +Cambridge!" + +"Pooh, Martha," said Mr. Binney. "You weren't half so attractive as +you are now, I'll be bound. And as for me, though I _am_ forty-five, +I'm as active as ever and could hold up my head with the best of them." + +"I know you could, Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham. + +"Now, Martha, I've got something in my mind," said Mr. Binney. "It's +been there for some time, but I haven't liked to mention it to you +because I was afraid--well, I didn't know how you might take it. But +really, you've taken what I _have_ said in such a way as--as to be +extremely gratifying to me, and upon my word I don't believe you'll +think my idea so very absurd after all." + +Mrs. Higginbotham looked at him with deep interest depicted in her face. + +Mr. Binney squared himself and sat up in his chair. "Lucius is going +to Cambridge in October," he said. "Now what do you say to my going +with him?" + +Mrs. Higginbotham's look of interest gradually brightened into one of +delighted agreement. "Oh, Peter," she said, "if you only could! Isn't +it too late?" + +"Not a bit," said Mr. Binney. "There's no limit of age. I found that +out long ago. I could go up there and be treated in all respects as if +I was five-and-twenty years younger than I am. And do you know, +Martha," added the little man confidentially, "such is my freshness of +mind that I believe in time I should come to believe that I _was_ +five-and-twenty years younger." + +Mrs. Higginbotham looked at him in speechless admiration. "It would be +lovely," she said. "What an interest I should take in your doings, +Peter!" + +This speech was as a spark to the tinder of Mr. Binney's inclinations. +"If you think about it like that, Martha, I'll do it," he cried +delightedly. "And now I must be getting home. I'll have a talk to +Lucius about it to-night, and come and tell you what I have decided +to-morrow." + +Mr. Binney took a tender farewell of Mrs. Higginbotham, and left her to +spend the evening in roseate dreams of returning youth and a wider +horizon than that visible from her windows in Woburn Square. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MR. BINNEY INTERVIEWS ONE TUTOR AND ENGAGES ANOTHER + +Mr. Binney and his son sat over their wine that evening in the +seclusion of the dining-room in Russell Square. Mr. Binney had been +somewhat silent during dinner, thinking over the disclosure he was +about to make. Somehow, now that it came to the point, he felt a +certain diffidence in mentioning it. Lucius also had something to say, +but waited until the servants were out of the room. + +"I say, father," he said, when they were left alone, "I've ordered a +new pair of patent leather boots from Peal's, and asked them to send +the bill in to you." + +Mr. Binney, immersed in his thoughts, had forgotten the occurrence of +the afternoon, or he would not have rushed with such haste to his own +destruction. "Bill into me, Lucius?" he exclaimed angrily. "What do +you mean? You've got your own allowance, and a very handsome one it +is. I'm not going to pay your bills for you besides. If it comes into +me I shall tear it up." + +"You've got your own boots," retorted Lucius, "and very handsome ones +they are. If you take a fancy to mine I don't mind you wearing them a +bit, only I haven't got enough for us both, so I thought you wouldn't +mind my getting another pair, as I can't do without." + +"H'm! Ah! yes!" said Mr. Binney, a trifle confused. "No, I don't mind +really, my boy, though I don't think there are many fathers who would +take it like that." + +"There aren't many fathers who would take their sons' boots," said +Lucius. "By the way, father, talking about allowances, what allowance +are you going to make me at Cambridge?" + +"Ah, Cambridge!" echoed Mr. Binney, as if that ancient seat of learning +had just been brought to his notice for the first time. "Yes, we must +talk about Cambridge." + +"I should like to have it settled before I go back to Eton for my last +half, if you don't mind," said Lucius. "A lot of my friends are going +up, and we shall be sure to be talking over it a good deal. I should +like to know what I shall be able to do and what I shan't." + +"You ought to think yourself very lucky to be going to Cambridge at +all," said Mr. Binney with a shake of the head. "I never had the +chance of going to Cambridge when I was a young fellow." + +"Oh, I daresay it's a jolly enough place," said Lucius, "although I +shall be sorry to leave Eton. Still, it isn't all fun, you know, +father. There's a certain amount of work to be done." + +"Work! Of course there is," said Mr. Binney. "But _what_ work! Think +of being able to carry on your education till you're twenty-two or +thereabouts. It's a grand thing, education. I never had any myself, +at least not what _you_ would call education, although I flatter myself +I know as much as most people." + +"Oh, yes, father," said Lucius. "Why, bless me, you've edited the text +of Shakespeare." + +"H'm, yes," said Mr. Binney, on whom a certain amount of adverse +comment had bred a measure of distrust in this feat. He took a gulp of +port. "We've always been friends, my boy, you and I, haven't we?" he +continued rather nervously. + +"Friends, father?" said Lucius. "Why, of course. I should think so." + +"You might, perhaps, almost say that we are more like brothers than +father and son," pursued Mr. Binney. + +"I don't know that I should go quite so far as that," said Lucius. +"But we always get on very well together, don't we?" + +"Yes, that is what I meant," said Mr. Binney. "Now I've got an idea, +which may be a little unusual." ("Not at all," murmured Lucius +politely.) "But I hope you'll fall in with it. At least when I say, I +hope, it doesn't matter a fig whether you do or not. I'm not going to +be dictated to by my son, though he has been to a public school and I +haven't. Who sent him there?" + +"Why, you did, of course, father," said Lucius. "I don't want to +dictate to you. What is your idea? That I shall go into the business +when I come down from Cambridge?" + +"That you'll do, of course," said Mr. Binney. "I hope you know on +which side your bread's buttered, and who buttered it for you. No, my +idea is about myself. I have worked very hard until now, but I haven't +had the time for self-improvement that I should have liked. Now, what +I propose to do is to take three years holiday off business and go up +to Cambridge with you in October. What do you think of that?" + +What Lucius thought of it might have been accurately gathered from the +length of his face. All power of speech seemed to have left him. He +could only sit with open mouth staring at his father, and this +demeanour instantly set up the comb of that peppery little bantam. + +"Well, well, what have you got to say? Why don't you speak?" he cried, +with some heat. + +Suddenly Lucius lay back in his chair, and gave vent to a loud, but +entirely mirthless, peal of laughter. "That's a good joke, father," he +said. "Gad! you _are_ a ripper. Won't the fellows laugh when I tell +'em?" + +This behaviour seemed to have a very ill effect on the circulation of +Mr. Binney's blood, which flew into his head to such an extent that his +face got as red as a tomato. + +"What do you mean, sir?" he cried angrily. "It isn't a joke at all. +Why should the fellows laugh, I should like to know? I tell you what +it is, sir, you're ashamed of your father, you ungrateful young snob. +Where would you have been, I should like to know, if I hadn't made my +fortune and sacrificed myself to give you a good education? Sweeping a +shop, I dare say, or a clerk on ten shillings a week. That's what you +would have been, my fine fellow, and a good deal too good for you, too, +you idle young----" + +"Steady on, father," interposed Lucius, now quite serious again. "I'm +not ashamed of you, you know that quite well--there's nothing to be +ashamed of--but I didn't think you could mean it, really. You can't +mean it, you know, why it's ridic--it's out of the question." + +"_Why_ is it out of the question, sir?" asked Mr. Binney. "_Why_ is it +out of the question?" + +"Well," said Lucius, "look what a precious pair of fools we shall look." + +"_You_ may, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I dare say you will. I can't help +your looking anything you please. But I flatter myself there's nothing +particularly foolish looking about me, is there? _Is_ there, I say?" + +"Oh, no, nothing at all," Lucius made haste to reply, "but I should +think there would be if you went up to Cambridge as an +undergraduate--something precious foolish. I suppose you mean to take +a house there, though, or something, and enter at some small college +where they won't worry you." + +"I intend to do nothing of the sort, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I shall +enter myself at Trinity. It is, I believe, the best college at +Cambridge. You chose it yourself. And I have no intention of taking a +house. I shall live in the college, and comport myself in the same way +as the steady young men with whom I, and you, too, I hope, expect to +associate." + +"Oh, Lord!" groaned Lucius. "Are we to go about together as steady +young men? Well, you can't get into Trinity, you know, that's one +comfort. The entrance examination is over and you couldn't pass it if +it wasn't." + +"Couldn't pass it, sir! You little know either your father's ability +or determination. And it is not over. There is another in October, +for which I shall present myself." + +"You'll have your work cut out for you to get ready for it. I suppose +you'll go to school for a term. I should go to Johnson's at Margate if +I were you, where you sent me--you see you're just over age for a +public school--they'll take you as a parlour-boarder, and I should +think you might get the good-conduct prize if you're careful." + +"That's right, sir," said Peter bitterly. "Pour scorn on your own +father, who has given you all the advantages you ever had. Of course, +you're a gentleman. You've been to Eton and you're going to Trinity. +Yet you grudge me having my little bit of education, though I pay for +both." + +"Oh, blow the education, father. Why don't you stew up for London +University, and live comfortably at home?" + +"Because I choose to 'stew up' for Cambridge University, sir, and let +that be an end of the matter. You'll find there will only be one of us +there if you're not precious careful, and it won't be you." + +Poor Lucius went to bed that night with a heavy heart. He had rowed +for one year in the Eton eight, and wore with great satisfaction a +flannel coat of light blue. He had hitherto looked forward with +pleasure to his career at Cambridge, with the hope of wearing another +light blue coat of a slightly different cut and shade of colour in the +course of it. Now a dark cloud had arisen to obscure the happy azure +of his mental horizon. + +"If he's going to be such a fool as to go up," he said to himself as he +undressed, "I'm hanged if _I_ will. I'll go to Oxford instead, +although all the chaps I know best are going to the other shop, and I +shan't like it half as well." + +He broached this proposition to his father the next morning at +breakfast, hoping all the time that he had given up his intention. But +Mr. Binney was more than ever confirmed in it, having spent a happy +night in dreams of glorious youthful feats to be laid at the feet of +the fair Mrs. Higginbotham; and Lucius's idea was received so badly +that he relinquished it at once, and made up his mind ruefully that he +should either have to go to Cambridge with his father as his close +companion, or not go at all. He went back to Eton the next day with +all his pleasure in the coming half spoilt by the dark fate that was +hanging over him, his only consolation being the recollection of the +difficulty of the Trinity entrance examination, which it had taken him +all his time to get through, although his work for the last ten years +had led directly up to it. + +"Of course he can't do the work by October," he said to himself. "He +doesn't know a word of Greek and only about three of Latin." + +And this consolation had to suffice him, for he knew his father well +enough to realise that if he had made up his mind to do this thing, and +it was in him to do it, do it he would. Moreover, on the day he had +left Russell Square for Eton he had seen a letter on the hall-table +addressed in his father's handwriting to the tutor on whose side he +himself was entered at Trinity, and blushed to think of what it +contained. + +Lucius's tutor, who was the most popular in the college, wrote to say +that his own side was full, but that his colleague, Mr. Rimington, +still had a few vacancies. So Peter wrote to Mr. Rimington and +received a reply requesting him to go up to Cambridge for a personal +interview. + +Peter travelled to Cambridge the same evening and put up at the "Bull." +After dinner he went out to make his first acquaintance with a +University town. It was a lovely April evening. The deep violet of +the twilight sky revealed the irregular roofs and towers of the old +buildings. There was a half foreign air about the clean paved streets +with the open rivulets running along the pavements. Peter walked up +King's Parade and viewed with awe the pile of the famous chapel of +King's, past the University Library and the Senate House, and the +modern pretentious façade of Caius College, conceived and executed in +the best Insurance office style of architecture, and into the narrow, +noisy little Trinity Street. The streets were full of men in caps and +gowns, and a few still in flannels and straw hats. Mr. Binney wondered +how these latter could walk along so unconcernedly when they might at +any corner run straight into the arms of a perambulating Proctor. He +was so imbued with the idea of himself as a budding undergraduate that +he half expected to be taken for one, and felt quite nervous when he +did meet a Proctor a little later on, lest he should be asked for his +name and college. He was a little disappointed when that functionary +passed him without comment, but so reverential were his feelings +towards one who held such high office in the University that he could +not refrain from taking off his hat to him, a salute which the Proctor +gravely returned, much to Mr. Binney's gratification. He would perhaps +have been less gratified if he had known that the great man, who was +not accustomed to receiving respectful greetings from middle-aged +gentlemen, took him for a subservient tradesman whose face he happened +to have forgotten. + +When Mr. Binney turned into the open space in front of Trinity College +and passed through the noble gateway into the Great Court, his heart +swelled with pride as he stood and looked round him. The twilight had +deepened into night, and the court lay quiet and spacious under the +stars. Opposite to him stood the hall, its painted windows shining +brightly through the dusk. To its right lay the Master's lodge, which +Mr. Binney had been told was also a royal palace, and in front of it +plashed the fountain underneath its graceful canopy of stone. To his +right was the dark mass of the closed chapel, and all round the court +stretched the long low buildings with their lighted windows and busy +staircases, their modest regularity broken up by the three gate towers, +the hall, the lodge, and the chapel. A little group of chatty dons +came towards him from the combination room, across the sacred grass, +one of them in all the bravery of a scarlet gown, and passed out +through the gate. A porter touched his hat to them and Mr. Binney felt +that he could have done the same with pleasure. Towards the +undergraduates who went to and fro in the court, along the flagged +pathways, his feelings were less reverential, but more curious, for he +hoped some day to be one of them. What a proud thing it would be to +walk on these very stones in a square cap and a blue gown and feel that +one had a share in all the ancient surrounding glories. He walked +slowly across the court, and up the steps of the hall. He stopped to +read the college notices in the glass-covered cases which hang in the +passage between the kitchen and buttery hatches on the one side, and +the carved screen which gives access to the hall itself, through heavy +swing doors, on the other. A crowd of waiters in their shirt-sleeves +were busy between the two clearing away the remains of the feast. Mr. +Binney looked into the hall which was now nearly ready to be shut up +for the night. The massive boards and benches of polished oak ran up +to the daïs in which were the two long tables where the dons sit at +their dinner long after the undergraduates have finished and left them +to their grandeur. The pictures of bygone worthies whom their college +delights to honour looked down on him solemnly from the walls. Behind +him was the beautiful screen with the gallery above, from which the +panels are removed on state occasions, when a bright array of fair +visitors looks down on the "animals feeding." The lights were going +out now, and the high-pitched roof with its many rafters was fading +into dimness. Mr. Binney turned with a sigh and went out, while a +servant locked the door and left the great hall to its solitude, with +the moonlight streaming in through the blazoned windows and the wakeful +eyes of the departed worthies watching through the night. + +The next morning Mr. Binney called on Mr. Rimington. He had to sit for +a quarter of an hour in the Tutor's ante-room, where half-a-dozen +undergraduates were awaiting their turn for admittance, looking over +the bound volumes of _Punch_ which were laid on the table for their +amusement. Two of them were talking, and Mr. Binney listened with open +ears to their conversation which was "shoppy" in the extreme, and all +the more interesting to him on that account. His appearance caused no +surprise, for fathers do sometimes visit their son's Tutors, but Mr. +Binney thought that every one present would know what he had come for, +and felt a little shy. + +He was shown presently into the inner room, a handsome one with a +beautiful ceiling, and was received very kindly by Mr. Rimington, who, +however, seemed a little nervous. + +"I don't know, Mr. Binney," he said, with some hesitation, "whether I +quite understood your letter." (Here he took Mr. Binney's application +from an orderly little pile on his desk.) "It seemed to mean that you +wished to enter yourself as an undergraduate of the college." + +Mr. Binney sat on a chair before the Tutor fumbling his hat between his +knees. "Certainly, sir," he said, "that is what I meant." + +"There is an undergraduate of your name already entered, I believe, on +Mr. Segrave's side?" + +"Yes, my boy Lucius. He passed the certificate examination last month." + +"Quite so. We are very glad to have him here. We hope he may row in +the boat and help us to beat Oxford." + +Mr. Binney was surprised to find a don taking an interest in such a +frivolous affair as a boat-race, but it put him a little more at his +ease. + +"There is nothing to prevent a man of my age entering at the +University, I suppose?" he inquired. + +"No," said Mr. Rimington with some hesitation, "not from our point of +view. But have you thought what it means, Mr. Binney? It is a +little--er--unusual for father and son to be undergraduate members of +the same college at the same time. Our rules are not at all irksome +for a young man--in fact, some people think we allow too much freedom, +although we find that we get on better by not drawing the rein so tight +as they do at some other colleges--but such as they are we could not +relax them, and in your case they might very well prove to be irksome." + +"Not at all," said Mr. Binney, "not at all. I am prepared to take the +rough with the smooth, and I can keep rules, if they are sensible +rules, as well as the young fellows." + +Mr. Rimington laughed nervously. "May I ask your reason for wanting to +come up to Cambridge so--so late in life?" he asked. + +"I have a passion for education, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I left school +at the age of fourteen, and have worked hard at my business ever since. +But money-making isn't the sole interest in life--besides I have got as +much money as I want. I wish to regain some of the lost opportunities +of youth." + +"Have you kept up your classical studies at all since you left school?" +asked the Tutor. + +"I never learnt any classics, sir," answered Mr. Binney airily; "that +has all to come. They didn't consider that Latin and Greek prepared us +for the business of life when I was a boy." + +"Oh! then I am afraid it is not of the slightest use your attempting to +enter for our examination," said the Tutor, with a visible shade of +relief overspreading his face, "it would take you years to come up to +the standard we require." + +"That is _my_ affair, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I shall not only attempt +it, I shall succeed. I have ability and determination." + +Mr. Rimington looked annoyed. "I think you will find you are +mistaken," he said. "However, as you say, that is your affair and not +mine. But, apart from that, I am not sure, Mr. Binney--I speak quite +openly--that it is the kindest course you could take, as far as your +son is concerned, to enter at the same college. He comes to us with a +very good character, and we hope he will do us credit. But it is +likely to go against him--I mean it will hardly be giving him a fair +chance with the other men of the college to be constantly under your +supervision. A University education, you know, Mr. Binney, is a +valuable training for a young man, because he begins to learn to stand +alone, while he is not left entirely alone. Your son would lose that +advantage, whatever else he might gain, if you were to be constantly +with him." + +Mr. Binney straightened himself up. Mr. Rimington's opposition roused +his fighting business instincts, which prompted him to take every +opportunity of gaining an advantage. "That again is a matter for me to +decide, sir," he said. "Lucius and I are very good friends and +understand one another thoroughly. I have given him advantages of +education that I never had, but when I put my foot down he has to obey. +He knows that by this time. We will leave him out of the question, if +you please." + +Mr. Rimington again looked annoyed. + +"If you are determined to come up for entrance to this college," he +said, "and succeed in passing the necessary test, which, I warn you, +will be a harder matter than you imagine, you would find yourself +compelled to associate with men of very immature views, Mr. Binney." + +"I am not afraid of that," said Mr. Binney. "In fact I shall enjoy it. +I have preserved my youth and can take the young fellows on their own +ground and beat 'em." + +Mr. Rimington passed his hand over his mouth. "Then I had better give +you the necessary papers," he said. "You must send us a certificate of +good conduct, signed by a clergyman who has known you for three years." + +"My pastor, the celebrated Dr. Toller, under whose ministrations I have +sat for the last twenty years would do, I suppose," said Mr. Binney. +"I am a Baptist." + +"Yes, certainly," said the Tutor. "Then there is the certificate of +birth. And this paper will tell you all about the subjects for +examination. I should advise you to engage a private coach. You are +too late, of course, for the first examination, but----" + +"There is another in October," interrupted Mr. Binney. "I know. I +shall present myself for that." + +"Then I will wish you good-morning, Mr. Binney," said the Tutor. "You +will excuse me, but I have a good many pupils to see." Mr. Rimington +summoned up his usual amiable smile and took leave of Mr. Binney with a +warm grasp of the hand; and Mr. Binney went out through the ante-room, +where the waiting crowd had swelled to unusual proportions, and +clattered down the oak staircase into the court, hugging his precious +sheaf of papers. + +In the Combination Room, that evening, Mr. Rimington and Mr. Segrave +discussed Mr. Binney over their wine. + +"I did my best to dissuade him," said Mr. Rimington. "It is very hard +lines on the boy." + +"He is a nice boy," said the other. "Wargrave"--this was Lucius's +house-master at Eton--"says he is one of the best boys he has in his +house; not at all brilliant, but of excellent character and a +first-rate oar--just the sort of freshman we want, as we can't expect +them all to be scholars. I'm afraid it will spoil his life here if his +father insists upon inflicting himself on us. What sort of a man is +he?" + +Mr. Rimington laughed. He would have liked to say, "Just a cocky +little tradesman," but he was a charitable man. "If I were the boy," +he said, "I would rather have him in London than at Cambridge. But I +don't think we shall see him at Cambridge. He left school thirty years +ago and has never learnt either Latin or Greek, or indeed anything that +we want, excepting, perhaps, arithmetic, and we don't want much of +that. Yet he expects us to admit him in October." + +"Oh, well then, we may set our minds at rest," said Mr. Segrave. "But +it's a curious idea altogether." + +Mr. Binney had got back to Russell Square by that time and was just +then engaged in writing out an advertisement for a resident tutor. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LUCIUS WINS A YEAR'S RESPITE + +A week after Mr. Binney's visit to Cambridge, he wrote the following +letter to his son:-- + + +"MY DEAR Lucius,--Yours of 29th ult. to hand. I note you are getting +on with your work and enjoying yourself. I have now relinquished my +attendance at the office, and have left the management in Mr. Walton's +hands, merely dropping in for an hour or two once a week to see how +things are going. As far as I can see he will carry on the business +well during my three years' absence, and at the end of that time I +shall take the reins again and you will begin work there. If all goes +well I shall take you into partnership a year after that, by which time +you ought to have fully mastered the details. + + +"_Re_ work for Trinity Entrance Examination. + + +"I have started on above, having engaged a private coach. I had 430 +answers to my application. My choice fell on a gentleman named +Minshull, a Peterhouse man who dwells in the vicinity. He took his +degree only last year and expects to enter the Church shortly. He +comes every morning at nine o'clock and we work till one. He lunches +with me, after which we take a walk in the Park or elsewhere, returning +for tea and another two hours' work. Then Minshull leaves me, and +after a light dinner I do preparation for him for another two hours and +then to bed. On Saturday we knock off at one, and I generally take an +outing with Mrs. Higginbotham, who wishes to be kindly remembered to +you. She takes a great interest in my enterprise, and refreshes her +memory and mine during our little jaunts by getting me to repeat to her +without book such things as I have learnt during the week as come +within the limits of the curriculum to which she applied herself during +girlhood. The subjects themselves are hardly such as in my judgment +repay the amount of study necessary to master them. What with the +growing competition in commercial life, and the great influx of +foreigners--Germans and others--it seems to me waste of time to devote +three valuable years of a young man's life in getting up the opinions +of a man like Plato, who lived so many years ago that his ideas are by +no means up-to-date. Or take a poet like Virgil again--if Virgil can +be justly called a poet. Compare his thoughts with those of our own +immortal Shakespeare--the Swan of Avon--or even with Macaulay's _Lays +of Ancient Rome_, if you _must_ have matters of ancient history treated +in poetry. And what is the use of puzzling over the Acts of the +Apostles in the Original Greek, when that book, as well as the rest of +the New Testament, has been so admirably translated in the Revised +Version? What the authorities of our Universities entirely fail to +grasp is that Latin and Greek _are not spoken nowadays_. How much +better young men would be fitted for the business of life if they were +trained to speak and write French and German fluently! This is so +obvious to a man of experience that I seriously thought of writing to +the Chancellor of the University, the Duke of Devonshire, and laying my +views before him, but Minshull dissuaded me, saying that I should be in +a better position to bring to bear any influence I might possess after +I have taken my degree, which is perfectly true. But the truth of it +is there are too many old women at the head of the Universities. What +you want are keen-headed men, men of experience in the world, who would +move with the times, and get Oxford and Cambridge to move with them. I +am so convinced I am right in this opinion, that if it were not for the +cares of business, to which I must return when I have finished with +Cambridge, I should apply for a Trinity fellowship after I have taken +my degree, and try to infuse a little spirit into the counsels of the +college and through it into the University. + +"I must now draw to a close and return to my studies. I feel that they +are beneath my powers, but at the same time I must not grumble at +having to begin at the bottom rung of the ladder. 'Thorough' has +always been my motto and will continue so. No more at present, from +your affectionate father,--PETER BINNEY." + + +Mr. Binney's letters as the time went on became more and more sprightly +in tone. With the cares of business he seemed to have finally laid +aside all the interests commonly felt by gentlemen who have reached +middle age. He relapsed into slang. Minshull, he said, was a "jolly +good sort," only you had to work. It was no good trying to "kid him." +The subjects for examination he now found "beastly stiff," and it was +an "awful sap" getting them up, but he quite expected to have "bowled +them over" by the time the examination was due. He mentioned Mrs. +Higginbotham once or twice as one on whose approval of the course he +was pursuing he greatly relied. + +"Confound that old woman," said Lucius when he read this. "She's +backing him up in all this nonsense. She's a sentimental old donkey. +Well, he can't do it in time, that's one comfort;" and Lucius would +encourage himself by dwelling on this conviction, and then tear up his +father's letters. + +He came up to town for two nights about the end of June on his long +leave. Mr. Binney, of course, was full of his work. He wished to be +treated just like any other youth with the ordeal of an examination +before him, and itched to talk over his chances. But Lucius retired +into his shell whenever Cambridge was mentioned. Mr. Binney, of +course, noticed this and began to get his back up about it. At last he +tackled his son in the most effectual way as they sat together in the +library at Russell Square after dinner. + +"Look here, young man," he said, "you may as well get used to this +idea. You and I are going up to Trinity together, and I want to do the +thing fairly and squarely. I shall put us both on an allowance, and at +present I intend to make them equal. But if you're going to be sulky +about it, they won't be equal, or anything like it. So put that in +your pipe and smoke it." + +"What allowance?" inquired Lucius with some interest. His father had +always refused to come to the point when he had asked him the same +question before. + +"Well, I thought of £300 a year," said Mr. Binney. "Minshull did it on +£200, and did it very well, but, as he says, Trinity is the college +where all the swells go, and if you want to live up to 'em you might +have to spend a bit more. As I say, I want to do the thing well." + +"I don't suppose Minshull knows much about it," said Lucius. "Most of +the chaps I know are going to have about four hundred, and hardly any +of them less than three. You have to be jolly careful on three hundred +a year at Trinity." + +"Ah, well," said Mr. Binney, "I won't let a hundred a year, or even +two, stand in the way, and we'll share alike if you're sensible about +it. But I'm not going to pay you four hundred a year to look down on +your father, so you had better make up your mind how you're going to +behave before October comes." + +Lucius sat silent with a gloomy countenance and his hands in his +pockets. When he was at school the idea of his father accompanying him +to Cambridge as a freshman seemed so absurd that he was sometimes +surprised to find that he was enjoying life much as usual, without +being very much burdened by it. When he was at home and realised how +very much in earnest Mr. Binney was, the dark fate that hung over him +became less remote, and filled him with gloomy forebodings. But youth +is elastic. It seemed almost out of the question that Mr. Binney would +succeed in passing the entrance examination, while Lucius himself was +already admitted a member of Trinity College. The allowance his father +had named seemed to him quite adequate, and he allowed himself to cheer +up a little and inquire after the health of Mrs. Higginbotham. + +Mr. Binney coughed in some little embarrassment. + +"Mrs. Higginbotham has a bad cold," he said, "and is confined to the +house. I hope she will be well enough to accompany me to Lord's for +the Eton and Harrow match, if the state of her bronchial tubes, which +are giving her a lot of trouble just now, permit of it. You will be +able to introduce us to some of your friends and future companions at +Cambridge." + +"I'm very sorry," said Lucius, "but I shan't be there. Henley comes in +the same week." + +"I shall be at Henley as well," said Mr. Binney, "and Mrs. Higginbotham +has kindly consented to accompany me. She takes a great interest in +your rowing career, Lucius, as she does in every other manly sport. +Ah! I hope the day may come when I myself--but we mustn't count our +chickens before they are hatched, must we? With regard to Henley, you +will be able to go about with us, I suppose, and see that----" + +"Very sorry, father," interrupted Lucius hastily, "I shall be rowing +nearly all day long. We're in for the Grand and the Ladies' Plate. +Besides, the captain of the boats is a terrible fellow. If he caught +one of us so much as speaking to a lady he'd cut up very rough." + +"Why is that, pray?" inquired Mr. Binney. + +"Oh, I don't know. They might offer us an ice or something. We have +to be awfully strict, you know, over training." + +"Ah, well, that's a pity. Mrs. Higginbotham would like to meet a few +of the young fellows who will be my companions for the next three +years. She said so. Perhaps you might get one of your cricketing +friends who would be unoccupied to look after us." + +"I'm afraid most of them will have people of their own to look after. +However, if any of them happens to lose his father and mother between +now and Henley, I'll see what can be done." + +"And now I must go to bed," said Mr. Binney, "so as to begin work early +to-morrow morning. I don't want to lose a minute more than I can help. +I'm not getting on terms with Mr. Plato as quickly as I should like. I +shall be able to introduce you to Minshull before you start, Lucius. +He's a good chap, and not a bit stand-offish as you might expect, +considering he's a B.A., and I'm not even a freshman yet. You'll find +him quite easy to get on with." + +Minshull was one of those people in whose eyes a three years' residence +at Oxford or Cambridge is such a glorious thing, that if they have gone +through it themselves they can talk or think of nothing else throughout +their lives. The healthy pleasant life of the average undergraduate is +idealised into a sort of seventh heaven, and a "blue" takes his place +immediately below the archangels and considerably above any mere +mortal. Seniority of residence forms an almost complete bar to social +intercourse with undergraduates of lower standing, and the little code +of etiquette invented to enliven proceedings in the lesser colleges is +as the laws of the Medes and Persians. To be or to have been "a +'Varsity man" was the only thing quite necessary in Minshull's eyes, if +you were to call yourself a gentleman, and he therefore saw nothing +that was not entirely laudable in Mr. Binney's determination to acquire +this hall-mark of superiority, however late in life. While trying to +instil into his pupil the requisite amount of Latin and Greek, he +imparted to him at the same time his own particular point of view in +matters of undergraduate custom, taught him what to admire and what to +avoid, until Mr. Binney was infused with the spirit of a provincial +youth about to enter the gates of the University paradise from his +country grammar school. Mr. Binney had first of all considered a +belated career at Cambridge as an opportunity for mending a defective +education; under the encouragement of Mrs. Higginbotham's yearnings +after vanished delights he had come to look upon it as a means of +gaining some of the prestige of golden youth; influenced by Minshull's +complacent reverence, he had insensibly drifted away from the careless +acquiescence with which Lucius, for instance, regarded his own proposed +residence at the University, and now felt that he should break his +heart if he was prevented from taking his part in the glamorous +delights which his tutor held before his eyes. He made herculean +efforts to get on terms with his examination subjects, and worked +harder than he had ever done in his life before. + +Minshull arrived at nine o'clock the next morning as usual. Mr. +Binney, who had been working since seven and had breakfasted at eight, +had not yet returned from a short constitutional, and Lucius had the +privilege of an interview with his father's tutor. + +Minshull was a tall young man, rather shabbily dressed, with a long +solemn face diversified by little ranges of spots of an eruptive +tendency. He greeted Lucius with some respect, for Lucius was a +potential "blue," and Minshull would have been as incapable of keeping +on his hat in church as of talking without due reverence to a "blue." + +"How's the governor getting on with his work?" asked Lucius with an +abashed snigger. + +"Oh, pretty well," replied Minshull. "He works very hard, but of +course he has to do everything from the beginning." + +"No chance of his getting through, I suppose?" said Lucius. + +"Oh, I don't know," said Minshull. "If he works as hard as he has been +doing so far for the next three months he may just be able to scrape +through in October." + +Lucius began to pace the room. + +"If he gets into Trinity I won't go up, that's flat," he said. + +"What! Not go up to the ''Varsity' when you've got a chance!" +exclaimed Minshull. "My dear fellow, you don't know what you're +talking about. You will regret it all your life if you don't." + +"Look here," said Lucius, "you were at Cambridge, weren't you?" + +"Yes, certainly," said Minshull, slightly offended. "I took my degree +last year." + +"Well, how would you have liked to have your old governor playing the +fool up there at the same college?" + +"I see no reason to suppose that Mr. Binney will play the fool," said +Minshull stiffly. "I have put him up to everything he ought to know. +He won't make mistakes. He is not likely to carry an umbrella with a +cap and gown or anything of that sort." + +"Why shouldn't he carry an umbrella if it rains? Look here, can't you +make certain of his getting pilled for this examination?" + +Minshull looked horrified. "What! and prevent his going up to the +'Varsity when he wants to?" he exclaimed. + +"Or if you can't do that and he's likely to get through, tell him that +you don't think much of Trinity, and get him to go somewhere else." + +"There are plenty of good colleges in Cambridge besides Trinity," said +Minshull, "although Trinity men don't seem to think so. My own +college, for instance, Peterhouse, isn't big, but it is one of the +best, if not _the_ best of the smaller ones." + +"Is it? Well then, get him to go there. Do you mean to say you don't +think it's a beastly shame him wanting to come up and spoil all my time +at Cambridge?" + +"I can't see----" began Minshull, but just then Mr. Binney came in, and +Lucius left them to their labours, with the uncomfortable conviction +that the toils were closing in on him and that there was no help at any +rate to be gained from his father's tutor. + +Henley week came round in due course, but Mrs. Higginbotham, alas, did +not come round with it. Her cold had settled on her lungs and the poor +lady was brought very low. At the time Mr. Binney hoped to have been +paddling her about on the Thames in a Canadian canoe she was surveying +the beauties of Torquay in a bathchair. Mr. Binney had been told by +Minshull that if he really wished to pass the Trinity entrance +examination in October, it was absolutely imperative that he should not +lose a single day's work if he could possibly help it, so Lucius won a +reprieve for that occasion, at least, and as the Eton boys managed to +win the Ladies' Plate and rowed a good race in the semi-final heat for +the Grand Challenge Cup, he spent on the whole a pleasant Henley. +During the first few weeks of his holidays he was training for and +rowing in some of the up-river regattas, and September he spent with +various school-fellows in Scotland, so it was not until just before he +was due at Cambridge that he found himself once more in the house in +Russell Square and the society of his father. Mr. Binney, in the +meantime, fired with a mighty ambition to show his mettle and acquit +himself well in his examination, had retired to an east coast village +with Minshull, and devoted himself strenuously to his books. He had +worked very hard for six months, but a man who has left a cheap +commercial school at the age of fourteen, and that thirty years before, +can hardly expect to do in that time what a public school boy has been +working steadily up to ever since his education began. A month before +the examination, Minshull saw that his pupil had no chance of success, +and told him so one morning as they were walking together by the sea. +Mr. Binney was heart-broken. + +"_No_ chance, Minshull?" he asked plaintively. "I don't mind working +another two hours a day, you know. Isn't there _any_ chance?" + +"I'm afraid not, Mr. Binney," said Minshull. "You have worked very +hard; you couldn't have done better; but you see the work is all new to +you. You might get in at the Hall, perhaps, or if you cared about it I +should think I might have enough influence with the Peterhouse +authorities to----" + +"Never," said Mr. Binney firmly. "Trinity or nowhere. If I make up my +mind to a thing, I stick to it. I shouldn't have made my fortune if I +hadn't." + +"I should advise you, sir, to give up all ideas of attempting the +October examination," said Minshull. "I can assure you you can't +possibly pass it, and if you do very badly it may be prejudicial to +your chances in the future. Take a month's holiday, or you'll knock +yourself up. Then set to work again and be ready for them next spring." + +"I feel you're right," said poor Mr. Binney. "I feel you're right, +Minshull, but it's a sad blow. You'll excuse me if I just walk on +alone for a bit. I shall get over it better." + +Minshull left him, and Mr. Binney spent a very bitter hour by himself. +He had never been beaten before when he had made up his mind to +succeed, and it enraged him to think of the two hundred beardless boys +who would enter Trinity College as freshmen in a month's time, most of +whom had succeeded without any difficulty in doing what he could not do +even with the most strenuous endeavours. Lucius, for instance, had +taken the whole thing very calmly, although he was not a particularly +clever nor a particularly diligent boy. Then his thoughts passed on to +Mrs. Higginbotham--Martha. That was the worst thought of all. He had +written once a week to Mrs. Higginbotham, alluding in an airy way to +his new acquaintances, Plato and Virgil and Euclid, as if he and they +were on the most intimate terms of familiarity. Now he would have to +tell her that their thoughts were too deep for him--for him who had +familiarised all England with the mind of a Shakespeare--and that the +languages by means of which they expressed their thoughts still +presented such a mountain of obstacles to him that it was doubtful if +he would ever succeed in getting over them. Still, the confession +would have to be made, and Mr. Binney, with that directness which +characterised all his actions, determined that it should be made that +very night. "I am very, very sorry, Martha," he wrote, "I have really +done my best. I shouldn't have been worthy of you if I hadn't. I'm +afraid your Peter is a bit of a dunce, although he never thought so +before. Write and say you will not throw me over for it, and I shall +set to work again with renewed earnestness." + +Mrs. Higginbotham, although deeply disappointed, wrote a very kind and +consoling letter from Torquay, where her bronchial tubes, which had +assumed complete mastery over all her actions, still detained her. + +"If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again," she wrote, and +thought she had said a very original thing. "I always found, when I +was a young lady at school, that if I couldn't master my tasks +immediately, the only thing for it was, not to give them up, but to +determine that I _would_ master them in time; and my mistress, Miss +Dolby--now an angel--used frequently to point me out to the parents of +other pupils, and say, 'That child has great determination, and will +undoubtedly make her mark.' I am aware that I have not fulfilled Miss +Dolby's prophecy up to present date, but your triumphs are mine, Peter, +and I trust that we shall both grow famous together." + +Mr. Binney was much encouraged by Mrs. Higginbotham's letter. He took +a holiday and went to Torquay, and by the time Lucius went up to +Cambridge early in October, very much relieved at the idea of at least +one year free from the companionship of his father as a fellow +undergraduate, he had settled down for a hard winter's work in Russell +Square. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NO HELP TO BE GAINED FROM MRS. HIGGINBOTHAM + +Lucius Binney enjoyed his first year at Cambridge exceedingly. He had +been popular at school and he was very much liked at the University. +He did enough work to enable him to avoid friction with the authorities +and passed both parts of his Littlego in his first term. He rowed in +the Trial Eights, but as he was not heavy enough to fill any place but +bow in a University boat, a place which was adequately filled already, +he did not get his Blue. His allowance enabled him to play his part in +the hospitalities of University life with credit, and he showed no +disposition to exceed it. He was made a member of the historic Amateur +Dramatic Club, commonly known as the A.D.C., and played the part of a +maid-servant in the first performances of his year on the most approved +principles of Cambridge dramatic art, with a slim waist, a high colour, +and an unmistakably masculine voice. He would have been one of the +happiest men in the University if he had not been continually haunted +by the thought of his father. + +But for some reason or other Mr. Binney, although he insisted upon +lengthy letters being written to him, giving the fullest possible +account of University matters, expressed no intention of paying him a +visit, as Lucius lived in continual fear of his doing. Perhaps he was +ashamed of his inability to pass the entrance examination after having +made certain of doing so; perhaps he preferred to make his first +appearance amongst Cambridge men as an undergraduate and not as the +guest of an undergraduate. At any rate he left Lucius unmolested +during his first two terms, but his letters became more and more +jubilant as he worked on at his examination subjects, and felt himself +getting nearer the desired goal. + +Lucius had a friend called Dizzy. His name was not really Dizzy, but +it is only fair to state that he had been christened Benjamin. To him +alone, of all his friends, Lucius had disclosed, under a solemn promise +of secrecy, the dark fate that was hanging over him. + +"He'll pass this time, Dizzy, I know he will," said Lucius, after +receiving a more than usually confident letter from his father, who +informed him that Minshull had told him that his Latin prose was, at +last, beginning to show signs of an elementary grasp of the fact that +there was such a thing as Latin grammar. + +"Not he," said Dizzy with complete confidence. "He'll never pass. I +knew an old geezer--no offence to your governor, Lucy--who first took +up Latin when his little boys were seven and eight, under a governess. +First week they were all three about equal. Then the eldest boy began +to forge ahead. In a fortnight the little one left the old man behind, +and after a month the governess said she'd have to go if he didn't do +her more credit. He didn't want that, so he married her, which was +what he'd been after all along, only hadn't liked to say so. They +can't learn things at that time of life, my boy, any more than we can +make a pot of money by winking at a fellow on the Stock Exchange. It's +not in 'em." + +"You don't know my governor," said Lucius, his depression very little +lightened by Dizzy's narrative. "He's been at it for nearly a year +now, grinding like a galley slave. That fellow Minshull must have got +something into his head by this time. And after all the entrance exam +isn't anything very big, is it?" + +"Not to us; we're educated men," said Dizzy, who was a member of +Trinity Hall, where the entrance examination is tempered to the shorn +Trinity candidate. "But it's the devil and all to people like your old +governor who ain't used to that sort of thing. _He_ won't pass, Lucy; +don't you be afraid of it." + +"It's too bad of him wanting to come up, isn't it, Dizzy?" said poor +Lucius, who yearned for sympathy and could only obtain it from this one +particular friend. + +"It _is_ too bad," said Dizzy. "I don't know what governors are coming +to. There's mine wrote to me the other day and said I was disgracing +the family name, just because I turned out those lights in St. Andrew's +Street and got hauled up at the police court for it. I told him I did +it entirely to save the ratepayers' money. He's always talking about +the enormous fiscal burdens he's got to bear, or some such tommy-rot, +and I thought that would please him. But not a bit of it. Governors +never listen to reason. I got eight pages back with a lot more about +the family name. Hang it, it ain't much of a name after all." + +It was not. It was Stubbs. But General Sir Richard Stubbs, V.C., had +done his little best to adorn it in days gone by and saw no great +probability of his son Benjamin doing the same in days to come. + +The account Lucius gave at home of his doings fired Mr. Binney's +imagination. + +"Splendid, my boy, splendid!" cried the little man, when he described +the two bumps which the Third Trinity boat had made in the Lent races. +"I shall go in for rowing myself; best exercise you can have," and Mr. +Binney drew himself up and struck the place where his chest would have +been if he had had one. "Is it likely, do you think, Lucius, that you +and I will row in the same boat?" + +"It's not only unlikely," said Lucius shortly, "it's impossible." + +"Oh, indeed," said Mr. Binney, with a dangerous gleam in his eye. "You +are such a swell I suppose, that nobody else can expect to come near +you." + +"You wouldn't even belong to the same boat-club," said Lucius. "You +ought to know that by this time. Third Trinity is only for Eton and +Westminster men, the rest of the college belongs to First Trinity." + +"I did know it," said Mr. Binney, "but I had forgotten it for the +moment. You needn't take me up so sharp, Lucius. Is First Trinity a +good boat club?" + +"Of course it is," said Lucius. + +"Very well, then, I shall join it, and take up rowing seriously. Have +you spoken at the Union yet?" + +"No, I don't belong to it. I shouldn't speak if I did, and it's no +good belonging to that and the 'Pitt' too." + +"The 'Pitt'! What's the 'Pitt'?" + +"It's a club." + +"Is it the thing to belong to it?" + +"Oh, I don't know. A lot of people do." + +"Ah, well, I must belong to that too." + +"You have to be elected to it. People sometimes get pilled." + +"Well, I should hope there wouldn't be much chance of _my_ getting +pilled, whatever that may mean. I belong to the National Liberal Club. +That ought to be enough for them, oughtn't it?" + +"Quite enough for them, I should think," answered Lucius, who had once +dined at that famous institution with Peter, and been offensively +patronised by one of Mr. Binney's fellow-members, a man old enough to +be his father. + +"I shall join the Union," continued Mr. Binney. "I expect most of my +triumphs will lie there. I am accustomed to addressing large +assemblies. I was nearly elected to the London County Council two +years ago, as you know. That's where I score, you see, being a man of +the world among a lot of boys. I've learnt to do things that they are +only just beginning to think about." + +"Yes. You've made your pile among other things," replied Lucius. +"Most of us haven't learnt to do that yet. We generally begin at the +other end and spend it first." + +"I shan't grudge spending some of it," said Mr. Binney. "I hope to +entertain the young fellows a good deal. Minshull says if you give a +few good breakfasts every term--do the thing well, you know, with +perhaps some fruit and a bottle of claret to come after--you get a +tremendous reputation for hospitality throughout the 'Varsity. Is that +so?" + +"Well, I'm not sure I ever met anybody who drank claret at breakfast. +I did know a fellow who used to drink brandy. He certainly did get a +tremendous reputation throughout the 'Varsity, but it wasn't for +hospitality. He wasn't up there long." + +"H'm. Well, Minshull said he knew a man who went up a bit late, who +had more money to spend than most people, who got into the first set at +Peterhouse through his breakfasts." + +"Did he? Lucky fellow! Well, I should give a few breakfasts if I were +you, father. We shall all think you a tremendous chap." + +"I mean to go one better than that, my boy, and give a little dinner +occasionally, to the _élite_ of the 'Varsity--Blues, and people of that +sort. I daresay you young fellows will only be too pleased to go +outside the ordinary lines once in a way. I suppose there's no rule +against giving dinners, is there?" + +"I never heard of it. It's pretty often broken if there is." + +"I intend to do the thing well, and open a bottle of champagne. I +daresay, now, champagne's a thing that's hardly known at Cambridge." + +"That's what I told my wine merchant last term. He was rather annoyed." + +"I don't object to a little jollification occasionally. I daresay you +and I, Lucius---for you shall do what I do--will become pretty well +known up there by-and-bye." + +"I dare say we shall," said Lucius with a sigh. And, indeed, it did +not seem unlikely. + +Before Lucius went back to Cambridge for the summer term, he made one +last attempt to avert the catastrophe which had now become +imminent--for Minshull had told him that Mr. Binney was now quite +capable of passing the required test. He called on Mrs. Higginbotham, +whose bronchial tubes had by this time become less ostentatious in +their behaviour. + +"Well, Lucius," said that lady, when he was seated opposite to her in +her comfortable drawing-room, "you will soon have your dear father to +look after you at college. It is not many young men who have a father +so ready to share in all their little pleasures." + +"No," said Lucius. "Don't you think you could stop him, Mrs. +Higginbotham, if you tried?" + +"Stop him!" exclaimed Mrs. Higginbotham with raised voice and hands. +"My dear Lucius, do not tell me that you are so selfish as to be +jealous of an excellent father." + +"Jealous!" echoed Lucius. "I don't know what you mean." + +"You _do_ know what I mean, Lucius," said Mrs. Higginbotham severely. +"And you _are_ jealous. I can see it in your face. Here is your dear +father continually talking to me with pride about the things you are +doing at Cambridge, while you are only thinking of yourself, and fear +that you will lose the position you have won when he is there to +compete with you. What a contrast! You should be ashamed of such +feelings, Lucius. I am sure I should be if I were in your place. What +matter if you do have to take a lower place in the estimation of your +young friends, when it is your own father--and _such_ a father--who +will replace you? I do not like to think of such behaviour." + +"He'll only be laughed at, you know," said Lucius. + +"And do you mean to tell me that, as an unworthy revenge for your loss +of prestige, you would actually dare to hold your own father up to +ridicule?" inquired Mrs. Higginbotham. + +"Of course I shouldn't," said Lucius. "I should do my best to prevent +his making a f--I mean becoming notorious." + +"There!" said Mrs. Higginbotham triumphantly. "Now you have +acknowledged your baseness, Lucius. I am thoroughly ashamed of you. +But you will learn that you _cannot_ prevent your father from becoming +notorious. He is _bound_ to take the lead in whatever he takes up, +especially among a lot of boys many years his juniors, and far inferior +in capacity. I am afraid that in addition to your miserable jealousy, +Lucius, there are things you wish to hide in your life at Cambridge, +things that you do not wish your father to know of. I hope, indeed, +that is not so. I should be truly sorry if the innocent life to which +he is looking forward with such pleasure was to be spoiled by the +misbehaviour of one for whom he has done so much." + +"I've got nothing to be ashamed of in my life at Cambridge, Mrs. +Higginbotham," said Lucius. "You don't seem to be any more reasonable +about this silly scheme than my father himself. I had better go, I +think." + +"I think so too," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "And do not come and see me +again, Lucius, until you are in a better frame of mind, and can speak +with more respect to one of your father's oldest friends." + +"I won't come and see you again at all, you silly old fool," said +Lucius; but he waited to say it until he was on the other side of the +door. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MR. BINNEY ARRIVES IN CAMBRIDGE + +Lucius's first May term wore itself out with a burst of glorious summer +weather. The boat races and cricket matches, the dances and college +concerts, the crowds of sisters and cousins, the mayonnaises and iced +cups, and all the other attributes of those ten days of mid-June which +go by the name of the May week, played their accustomed parts in +mitigating the severity of the toil to which Cambridge devotes itself +for the rest of the academic year. + +But to Lucius there was a heavy cloud darkening the vivid blue of the +summer sky. Mr. Binney was to arrive at the end of the term, to +undergo his examination. The days passed with relentless speed, and +one unhappy morning he found himself walking up and down the long +unlovely platform of the Cambridge station, awaiting the train which +was bearing his father rapidly towards the scene of his future +exploits. So far only Mr. Benjamin Stubbs shared with him the +knowledge of the evil fate that was in store for him. But the secret +was bound to come out now, and Lucius wondered whether there was a more +unhappy man in all Cambridge than himself. + +Mr. Binney arrived, accompanied by Minshull, for whom he had taken +rooms at the Hoop, in order that he might have the advantage of his +able tuition up to the very last moment, for he was determined to throw +away no little chance that might add to his prospect of success. Mr. +Binney himself had been allotted rooms in college for the few days +during which the examination lasted. If he was not already a Cambridge +man this was the next best thing to it, and a proud man was Mr. Binney +to find himself the occupant of a garret in the Great Court with a +bedroom which any one of his servants at Russell Square would have +turned up her nose at. They were the rooms of a sizar, and were barely +furnished even for a very poor man's rooms, but the sizar had blossomed +into the Senior Wrangler of that year, and that fact repaid Mr. Binney +in full for any little inconvenience he might have felt at being +deprived of most of the necessities and all the luxuries of life to +which he had been accustomed. + +Lucius accompanied his father to these rooms and left him to himself, +for he was lunching with the captain of his boat. It was the last +night of the races, and Mr. Binney proposed, after spending a busy +afternoon with Minshull over his books, to go down to Ditton Corner and +see the boats. Lucius thanked his lucky stars that he was rowing and +need not present his father to an admiring circle of friends on that +very public occasion. He would have been pleased enough to introduce +him as a father, there or at any other place, if he had come up simply +to pay him a visit, for Lucius was a right-minded boy and showed no +disposition to be ashamed of his somewhat humble origin among his +circle of more or less gilded youth; but to have to say "My father, who +is coming up here next term," and to have to stand by while little Mr. +Binney tried to reduce himself to the level of an inexperienced +schoolboy, as he felt certain he would do, was an ordeal that he did +not feel equal to, and he made up his mind to let the inevitable +catastrophe bring itself about in its own way. He told himself that he +was happy to have averted it for so long, for although some of the dons +knew of Mr. Binney's intention, and his own Tutor had actually talked +to him about it, the secret did not seem to have become public property +among the undergraduates of the college. + +Mr. Binney was delighted with everything he saw. The gay crowd in the +paddock at Ditton Corner, the lines of carriages on one side, and the +flotilla of moored boats under the bank, appealed to him with all the +force of a delightful novelty. The boating men and others on the +tow-path across the river, with the photographers plying their trade +and letting off their amiable witticisms through their megaphones, the +boat crews in their coloured coats, some of them with flowers in their +hats, swinging down to their stations round the bend, gave him great +pleasure. Then, after a pause, filled with the gossip and laughter of +the crowd, when a distant gun was heard, and three minutes afterwards a +second, and a minute after yet another; when the men in the boats under +the bank straightened themselves and said, "They're off"; when a moving +mass of the heads of men running was seen far away under the willows +across the meadows; when little men laden with bundles of coats fled +along the tow-path opposite towards the "Pike and Eel"; when the noise +of the shouting and the springing of rattles drew nearer; when every +head in the crowd was turned towards Ditton Corner, and two boats came +into sight very close to one another, and after them two more, and the +shouting and cheering was taken up by every one around him, Mr. Binney +lost his head with excitement, and yelled with the best of them, +especially for the heroes of Fitzwilliam Hall whom he, for some reason +or other, mistook for a Trinity crew. + +"It's grand, Minshull, it's grand," he said as they made their way home +with the crowd along the river bank and across Midsummer Common. "I +don't wonder at your being proud of Cambridge, Minshull." + +"I'm glad Pothouse made their bump just opposite Ditton," said Minshull +complacently. "Now you see what rowing is like, Mr. Binney." + +"Lucius rowed well," said Mr. Binney. "Didn't you think so?" + +"Yes," said Minshull, who had been a diligent but ineffective La Crosse +and hockey player during his residence at the University, and hardly +knew an oar from a barge pole. "But it seemed to me that he hardly +caught the beginning enough." + +"You had better tell him that," said Mr. Binney with unconscious irony. +"I dare say he'll be glad of any hints he can get." + +Lucius sat in his rooms in Jesus Lane the next afternoon in a very +depressed frame of mind. His father had intimated that he was coming +to tea. Lucius had invited Dizzy to meet him, hoping that his friend's +pleasant flow of conversation would help out the entertainment, and +prevent his own plentiful lack of cheerfulness from becoming too +apparent; but Dizzy had not arrived yet. He devoutly hoped that nobody +else would unexpectedly honour him with his society. But alas! an Eton +friend, one year his junior, who was in for the entrance examination, +took that untoward opportunity of paying him a visit. + +"There's such a rummy little devil up," he said in the course of +conversation, "about sixty years old, with carrotty whiskers. It +oughtn't to be allowed." + +The blow had fallen. Poor Lucius sat silent in untold misery, and just +then in walked Mr. Binney. "My father," said the wretched boy. "Lord +Blathgowrie." + +Lord Blathgowrie shook hands with Mr. Binney without visible +embarrassment, and then, suddenly remembering a pressing engagement, +went out to spread his extraordinary news. + +"A lord!" said little Mr. Binney with great satisfaction. "Well, there +are a good many lords I could buy up. However, that seems a nice young +fellow. I wonder how he got on with his Virgil paper. I must ask him +to-morrow." + +Lucius groaned inwardly. "I shouldn't pal up to chaps like that, if I +were you, father," he said. "I should keep as quiet as I could, or +you'll make yourself and me look jolly ridiculous." + +"Allow me to tell you, sir," said Mr. Binney up in arms at once, "that +no action I choose to take is likely to make either you or myself look +ridiculous. And I object to being made the butt of such observations +from my own son. It isn't the first time it has happened, and in order +that it may be the last, I beg to tell you that it is my intention to +knock ten pounds a year off your very handsome allowance for every +speech of that sort that I am called upon to listen to." + +Lucius groaned again and passed his hand wearily across his brow, but +made no verbal remonstrance to his father's harsh announcement, and +just then the door of the house was heard to slam, and Dizzy tumbled +noisily upstairs and into the room. + +"My father--Mr. Stubbs," said Lucius dejectedly. + +"How do you do, Mr. Binney," said the cheerful Dizzy. "Pleased to meet +you. Lucy--I mean Lucius, told me you were thinking of giving us a +turn up here. Not a bad place, is it? Better than Threadneedle +Street, eh?" + +"I don't know very much about Threadneedle Street, Mr. Stubbs," said +Mr. Binney, a little taken aback by Dizzy's extreme friendliness, "but +this certainly is _not_ a bad place. Indeed it is a very good place. +It is a noble place." + +"How did you get on with your papers?" inquired Dizzy, helping himself +to a large slice of cake. "Pipped 'em all right, I hope." + +"I think I acquitted myself tolerably satisfactorily, thank you," +answered Mr. Binney. "We were examined on the Acts of the Apostles +this afternoon." + +"Rummy old boys, those Apostles," began Dizzy in a vein of reminiscent +anecdote, but Mr. Binney interrupted him. + +"Mr. Stubbs," he said, "I am a man of religious views. I must beg you +not to make light of sacred matters. You'll excuse my making the +stipulation, but----" + +"Oh, not at all," said the unabashed Dizzy ambiguously, "don't mention +it. I was only going to say that it seems a rummy thing--however, +perhaps I'd better not. See the races yesterday?" + +"I did," said Mr. Binney, warming at once. "I never saw anything which +pleased me better. What a thing it is to see a lot of young fellows +going in for such a grand sport as that!" + +"It is," said Dizzy. "I'm a whale on sport. I ain't much of a hand in +a boat myself, but put me on a horse and I'll undertake to----" + +"Tumble off," interpolated Lucius, who was in a state of irritation +verging on desperation. + +"Lucy, you've got a fit of the green-eyed monster," said Dizzy. "You +ride like a bag of potatoes yourself, and you're jealous of those who +can beat you. Don't you pay any attention to him, Mr. Binney. You'll +get to know him by-and-bye. Going to keep a horse up here?" + +"I hadn't thought of it," said Mr. Binney doubtfully. "I rather +thought of devoting myself to rowing." + +"Capital thing," said Dizzy. "I knew a fellow who----" + +Dizzy's anecdote was so little to the point that it may be omitted. In +later life he would probably become one of those old men who interrupt +conversation with the dread opening, "I recollect upon one occasion," +and sail off into interminable pointless reminiscence. But, at +present, his absolute lack of self-consciousness and his flow of +youthful good spirits made him very agreeable company, and when he left +Lucius's rooms half-an-hour later, he had completely captivated Mr. +Binney with his artless prattle. + +"That's a very nice young fellow," said Mr. Binney, when the door had +closed on Dizzy's back. "If all your friends at Trinity are like that, +Lucius----" + +"Stubbs isn't at Trinity," said Lucius, "he's at the Hall." + +"Really!" said Mr. Binney, much surprised, "I thought that Trinity men +never associated on equal terms with men of other colleges." + +"That's one of Minshull's ridiculous ideas, I suppose," said Lucius. +"It doesn't matter what college a fellow is at if he's a good chap, and +there are plenty of good chaps in Cambridge outside Trinity, especially +at the Hall." + +"But I should have expected a little more--what shall I +say?--deference, in a man from another college." + +"Well, then, I'm afraid it's one of those expectations in which you'll +be disappointed if you're really coming up here. Trinity's the best +college in Cambridge--or Oxford either for that matter--but it isn't +the only one, and nobody thinks it is unless it's fellows like +Minshull, who are always running it down, although they would have +given their ears to belong to it themselves." + +"I don't like the tone you take up about Minshull, Lucius," said Mr. +Binney. "Minshull's a very good fellow, although he hasn't had the +advantages that you and I have. I owe him a great deal, and I shan't +forget it. Now I must go and look over the subjects for to-morrow's +papers." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LORD BLATHGOWRIE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY + +Poor Lucius went up to Cambridge for his second year with his allowance +pared down to £360 a year, for, careful as he was, he had not been so +successful as altogether to avoid hurting his father's +susceptibilities; and with him went Mr. Binney, for eighteen months of +hard toil had enabled him to pass the entrance examination, and he was +now duly admitted a pensioner of Trinity. + +Lucius had been allotted rooms in college, while Mr. Binney inhabited +one of the choice mansions in Jesus Lane. He had knocked off ten +pounds from his son's allowance for suggesting a retired situation in +the Trumpington Road. "I am determined to do the thing as well as my +means will permit of," he had said. "If I can secure good rooms in +college next year, I shall do so. Until then I shall take the best +lodgings that are available." + +They parted at the railway station. "I suppose I shall see you some +time to-morrow," said Mr. Binney, when he had collected his luggage and +was just stepping into a fly. + +"I suppose so," said Lucius dejectedly, as he drove away. + +Lucius dined that night in hall, and sat in extreme misery while his +friends aired their humour at his expense, for by this time the news of +Mr. Binney's arrival had become public property. Their chaff was not +ill-humoured, and if matters had stood as they evidently imagined, +Lucius could have borne it. Elderly undergraduates are not altogether +unknown at Cambridge, although they do not often appear at Trinity +College; but they are usually careful to comport themselves with +dignified reticence, and to keep very much in the background. A +University degree is, as a rule, the sole end they have in view in +putting themselves to school again, and they are very far from wishing +to ape the manners and customs of the young men with whom they share +the pursuit of that laudable object. Lucius had the mortification of +feeling that if Mr. Binney had contented himself with working quietly +for a degree, and living the unobtrusive life which befitted his years, +the amused interest aroused by the event of father and son pursuing +their studies at the same time at the same college would have worn +itself out, and Mr. Binney might even have come to be considered in the +light of a pleasant acquaintance by Lucius's friends. He knew quite +well that his father would not be content with this humble role, and +that the intermittent sniping of which he was now the object would +develop into a regular fusillade of ridicule when Mr. Binney had had +time to spread himself a bit and become more notorious. + +He went back to his solitary rooms after hall and set himself down to +read. Poor boy, he was too dispirited to do anything else. He sported +himself in with the half-formed intention of refusing admittance to his +father if he should present himself. But up to ten o'clock, when the +college gates are shut to outsiders, no one had attempted to invade his +privacy. Soon afterwards he went to bed, having spent his first +evening at Cambridge entirely in his own society. For two days he +moped alone, keeping to his rooms as much as possible and only leaving +the college to go down to the river, where his fame was steadily +rising. His friends for the most part considerately kept out of his +way, thinking that he might be engaged in looking after his freshman +parent. But strangely enough he heard or saw nothing of Mr. Binney. +He avoided places where he was likely to meet him, and so far his +father had never once been to his rooms. + +On the third morning he determined to face the music. "If I'm to stop +up here," he said to himself--"and I can't go down now I've got a +chance of my Blue--I must make up my mind to get used to it. But it's +enough to make a fellow take to drink, or work, or something." Then he +put on his hat and went round to the "Pitt" Club. + +There was a group of men round the fire-place in the big room. +"Halloa! here's Binney Minor," said one of them. "How's your major +getting on, old man?" + +Then many agreeable pleasantries were fired off at him, while he sat on +one of the long seats and pretended to read a paper. When it was found +that the pleasantries did not amuse him, and he was taking his fate +seriously, they ceased, and by-and-bye an exodus took place and he was +left to himself. + +"I'm afraid poor old Lucy's papa is rather a trial to him," said one of +his late tormentors as they walked up Jesus Lane in the sedate and easy +manner affected by undergraduates who value their position. "What has +he come up for, any way?" + +"To look after Lucy, I suppose," said another, "but I don't know why; +_he's_ straight enough." + +"Have you seen the little beggar?" inquired Blathgowrie, who was one of +the group. "He's one of the rummiest little beggars you ever saw; +rather like an elderly jockey who's got into parliament. Can't think +where Lucy gets his good looks from. His mother must have been a +ripper." + +"I saw him on the river yesterday," said a rowing man; "he was coxing a +First Trinity boat and shouting away as if he had been at it all his +life. The crew looked frightened and the coach couldn't get a word in +edgeways. I think that little man is going to afford us some +amusement." + +"If he's going to play the fool," said the first man, "that's why Lucy +looks so glum when he's chaffed, and I don't wonder at it. I must say +it's beastly hard lines on him, and he's such a good chap. Binney +major's the sort of governor one would like to keep in the background. +Here's Dizzy." + +Dizzy was on his way to the "Pitt." When he got there he found Lucius +sitting alone, looking the picture of misery. A few Bloods were +talking blatantly round the fire, and some quiet members were trying to +write letters or read the papers in other parts of the room. + +"Well, how has he been behaving?" asked Dizzy, sitting down by his +friend. + +"I haven't seen him yet," said Lucius. "I can't think why." + +"Perhaps he means to behave decently and keep out of the way," +suggested Dizzy. + +"Not he," answered Lucius. "There's something up." + +There was. When Lucius got back to his rooms he found a note on his +table. + +"Dear Lucius," it ran, "Pray what is the meaning of your not coming to +call on me? You know very well that I can't go to your rooms until you +do, you being the senior man, and there are a lot of things I want to +talk to you about. You will find yourself £10 poorer at the end of the +year for this piece of impertinence, and let me advise you to be very +careful how you behave. Though a freshman I am still your father. +Come to tea this afternoon at five o'clock. I am not to be trifled +with.--P.B." + +The miserable Lucius went to his father's rooms on his way up from the +river. Mr. Binney had been on the river, too, and had not yet +returned. Lucius had an opportunity of surveying his father's +quarters. There was nothing to show they did not belong to the most +callow freshman of eighteen. There were two large shields with the +coats-of-arms of the University and Trinity College over the +mantelpiece. There was a Trinity coat-of-arms on the coal scuttle, on +the match-holders, the pipe-rack, and every article in the room that +could reasonably bear it, as well as on every piece of crockery that +was laid out on Mr. Binney's tea-table. The usual textbooks and +note-books lay about. Lucius looked into the latter and found a feeble +attempt at a caricature of a respected lecturer, signed P.B. On the +mantelpiece were some printed cards and papers relating to certain +small clubs and societies, of which the freshman seeks membership with +much avidity, and resigns with equal enthusiasm when he has reached the +dignity of his second year. On a chair lay Mr. Binney's cap and gown. +To Lucius's horror, the stiffening of the cap had disappeared, and the +gown had been cut short. These are the unfailing signs of the +second-rate undergraduate who wishes to be taken for a sporting +character. Some misguided but radically inoffensive freshmen fall +under the influence of such ideals in their early days, and grow out of +them afterwards. But surely Mr. Binney could not have made friends +with the rowdies yet! He had hardly had time to make friends with +anybody. + +Just then Mr. Binney himself came in. He was in his boating clothes, +of which he was not a little proud. + +"Oh, so you've condescended to come at last, have you?" he said. + +"I'm very sorry, father," said poor Lucius. "I'd no idea you would +stand on all that ceremony. I couldn't make out why you didn't turn +up. I thought perhaps you had made up your mind that it would be +better for us to take different lines." + +"Another ten pounds off," roared Mr. Binney, "you know what I said." + +"Oh, _damn_ it," said Lucius, losing patience. "I shan't have anything +left at all soon. I'd better go down at once, and have done with it." + +"How dare you swear at me, sir?" cried Mr. Binney. + +"Well, isn't it enough to make a chap swear?" answered Lucius, almost +crying. "I've had such a jolly time up here, and now I'm ashamed to +show my face. And as if that wasn't enough you take money off me every +time I open my mouth." + +Mr. Binney relented. He was fond of his son, and Lucius looked very +unhappy. "I'll let you off this time," he said, "but don't let it +occur again. Now, what I wanted to say was that I'm not getting on as +I expected. Not a soul has called on me except some one who wanted a +subscription for a missionary society. I was very pleased to give him +a sovereign, of course, but I could hardly take his call as a friendly +visit. I have picked up a few friends of my own year at hall and +elsewhere, but that isn't what I want. I want to know the +distinguished men. You know them. Why haven't you sent some of them +to call on me?" + +"Look here, father," said Lucius. "It's no use going on like this. +The people I know don't go in for all this 'calling' rot, and I'm not +going to ask them to. If you _must_ know that particular lot, you'll +meet some of them in my rooms occasionally, and if they take to you, +well, you'll get to know some of them. But you must take your chance +just like anybody else. It's no good pushing things." + +"Well, there's sense in that," said Mr. Binney. "You can have a little +dinner in your rooms. I'll pay for it, and I daresay we shall be very +good friends before the evening is out. I suppose you couldn't get +Muttlebury up for it, could you? You said you knew him. I should like +to meet Muttlebury." + +"No, I couldn't," said Lucius shortly. + +"Well, any blues will do. I should like to be able to tell Minshull I +dined with a party of blues. He only knew one, and that very +slightly--Widgeon, who put the hammer or something last year. He was +at Peterhouse--Pothouse, I mean. By-the-bye, I suppose there's no harm +in my looking up men of my own year, is there?" + +"I suppose not, not if you use your sense about it." + +"Now, what about the 'Pitt' Club? When is the election?" + +"I don't know. In about a fortnight I should think." + +"Is my name down for it?" + +"No." + +"And why not, pray?" + +"I've only been there once since I came up." + +"Put it down at once, then, and don't lose any more time about it. +Minshull had never heard of the 'Pitt,' but I have learnt since I came +up that all the best known people belong to it. And I should like to +belong to the A.D.C. too." + +"I daresay I can manage that for you. I'm on the committee now, and we +are always very kind; but, look here, father, there's not the slightest +chance of your belonging to the 'Pitt' or the A.D.C. either if you +don't keep yourself in the background at first. And whatever made you +knock the stuffing out of your cap like that? It's only the rowdies +whom nobody respectable has anything to do with who go in for that sort +of thing." + +"Minshull told me that if you wore a new cap and gown everybody took +you for a smug," said Mr. Binney. + +"Minshull's a fool," said Lucius, with withering scorn. "You'd better +take my advice about things like that, not his. And I should buy +myself a new cap if I were you." + +A few days after, Dizzy gave a dinner. Most of his guests had arrived +and were discussing the vagaries of Mr. Binney, who by this time had +become a public character, when Blathgowrie arrived in a state of some +perturbation. + +"I say, you fellows," he said, as he came in. "This business will have +to be stopped. I've had that little bantam in my rooms since seven +o'clock. I'm not going to stand it." + +"What did he want?" + +"Said he hadn't seen me in hall, and wondered what had become of +me--thought he'd pay me a friendly call." + +"What did you do?" + +"Well, I was civil for the sake of poor old Lucy. But I didn't get him +out of the room for an hour, and he said he was coming again. Hang me +if I ever saw such a pushing little scug." + +"Lucy ought to tell him to keep to himself." + +"Bless you, _he_ can't help it," said Dizzy. "He gets his screw docked +every time he suggests such a thing." + +"Well, I call it a beastly shame. But if Lucius can't do it, somebody +else must." + +"I'll do it," said Blathgowrie. "I'm not shy. He's bound to turn up +again soon; said we were fellow freshmen, or some such rot, and ought +to know one another better. He'll know _me_ better before I've done +with him. Hush, here's Lucy." + +Mr. Binney was not elected to the "Pitt" Club, and Lucius had not been +able to bring himself to propose his name for membership of the A.D.C., +preferring to lose the £10 of income which his father knocked off for +each rebuff, than to put his colleagues to the awkward necessity of +either rejecting his nomination, or of electing his father to clubs +where he was not wanted. Nor did his dinner bring about that measure +of popularity which Mr. Binney had hoped for. Lucius asked four of his +tried friends, who were very polite, very much bored, and retired +early. Dizzy might have saved the situation, but Dizzy had gone up to +town with an _exeat_. Mr. Binney had by this time joined the Union and +spoken twice. He could talk of nothing else and looked forward with +confidence to filling the President's chair. + +A few nights afterwards he again invaded Blathgowrie. It was about +half-past nine, and that estimable nobleman had a select party of about +twelve playing the unallowable game. + +There was an abashed silence when little Mr. Binney entered and flung +his cap and gown on a chair. + +"Good evening, Mr. Binney," said Blathgowrie. "We are engaged in a +quiet game of whist. Could you make it convenient to call on another +occasion?" + +"Don't mention it, my lord; don't mention it," said Mr. Binney. "I'll +make myself comfortable and look on. I should like to see whist +played. It is a game I am unacquainted with, although I recollect when +I was a young fellow Snap and Old Maid used to be favourite games in +the family circle." + +"They're favourite games up here," said Blathgowrie, "and so are Hunt +the Slipper and Puss in the Corner. We'll play Puss in the Corner when +we've finished this, and you shall be poor pussy. What, not going yet, +Astley!" + +But first one and then another of Blathgowrie's friends was afraid he +must be going, and in ten minutes he was alone with Mr. Binney, putting +up the cards with unimpaired cheerfulness. + +"I'm very sorry I've disturbed your game," said Mr. Binney, whom this +wholesale exodus had considerably amazed. + +"Not at all, Mr. Binney, not at all. My friends are in the habit of +retiring to rest early. They're all anxious to catch the worm +to-morrow, you know." + +"Don't call me Mr. Binney," said Peter; "call me Binney. We're of the +same standing, you know." + +"So we are, Binney," acquiesced Blathgowrie. "Well, Binney, how do you +find yourself? Pretty well, thank you?" + +Mr. Binney began to grow suspicious. + +"I hope, sir, I'm not intruding on you," he began. + +"Well, Binney," said Blathgowrie, "to tell you the plain truth, you do +intrude confoundedly." + +Mr. Binney started up out of his chair. + +"Pray sit down, Binney," said Blathgowrie. "I am commissioned by my +friends and your son's--Lucy's, you know--to tell you we consider +you're behaving in a devilish mean and shabby manner to him. He's done +his best for you, you know, but to tell you the truth we don't care for +you, Binney. You're not quite our sort, you know---a year or two older +perhaps--and we really can't have you poking in your nose where you're +not wanted. There are plenty of nice quiet Johnnies about who'll be +very pleased to make your acquaintance, especially if you feed them +well, but speaking for the unworthy people whom you honour with your +attentions at present, I beg to inform you that they are declined with +thanks." + +Mr. Binney arose in his wrath. He was somewhat violent and altogether +incoherent. Blathgowrie handed him his cap and gown and opened the +door for him. + +"Good-night, Binney," he said, "mind the step;" and Mr. Binney +disappeared down the staircase. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MR. BINNEY SPEAKS AT THE UNION AND MAKES A DISTINGUISHED ACQUAINTANCE + +Mr. Binney went out of Blathgowrie's lodgings and into the street in a +white heat of indignation. His blood boiled within him at the +indignity to which he had been subjected. Was it possible that he, +Peter Binney, the founder of a great commercial house, the Bloomsbury +ratepayer, the almost successful candidate for the London County +Council, had been told in so many words by a mere slip of an impudent +boy that his society was not wanted by him and his callow friends? +What next! he wondered. As if he cared for their contemptible society! +Pshaw! It was the other way about. If they had had the slightest idea +how his name was respected in the City, they would have sung a _very_ +different tune. He wouldn't have their acquaintance now, or join their +precious clubs if the committee went down on their bended knees and +begged him to do so. He flung into his rooms burning with anger +against the whole insolent crew of them, and most of all against his +son, Lucius, whom he unjustly accused of being the disloyal cause of +his late reverse. + +"Ah, Binney, I thocht ye wouldn't be long, and I'd just wait for ye," +said a voice with a strong Scotch accent, from the depths of Mr. +Binney's armchair. + +"Oh, that you, M'Gee!" said Mr. Binney. "I'm pleased to see you. But +you'll excuse me for being a little upset. I've just undergone a piece +of monstrous impertinence from my Lord Blathgowrie, and I scarcely know +how to contain my anger." + +"Toch!" exclaimed M'Gee. "What for do ye want to mix yourself up with +such trash? I've come to talk to you about the Union. Sit down, man, +and listen." + +M'Gee, like Mr. Binney, was a freshman, and like Mr. Binney again, had +come up to Cambridge many years later than the average young man enters +upon his University course. He was the son of a Highland gillie, and +had succeeded with incredible difficulty, as far as money was +concerned, in gaining a degree at a Scotch University. But that had +not sufficed for him. He was ambitious, and extremely tenacious of +ideas. He had early made up his mind to bring his brains to the market +of Cambridge, and at Cambridge he accordingly found himself at the age +of thirty-seven, with a scholarship at St. John's College, and nothing +else upon which to support himself except his determination to succeed +to the highest honours that Cambridge could afford. He had joined the +Union with a shrewd and resolute eye to the President's chair, but the +lighter social success which held such a charm from Mr. Binney's point +of view he regarded with the most lofty scorn. Self-contained and +self-reliant as he was, however, he was not entirely without a human +weakness for sympathy and encouragement in his aims, and had fixed upon +Mr. Binney, as one who shared with him some of the accidents of his +position, with whom to indulge in the occasional luxury of discussing +his ambitions. + +"I wouldn't give a thought to these young 'bloods,' as they call them," +said M'Gee. "They'll be of no use to ye. They make a big splash while +they are up here, but when they go down they're no better than dirt." +Here M'Gee snapped a bony finger and thumb. "I'm no saying that I'd +like to be nothing but a worker in Cambridge," he went on. "You keep +to yourself for three years and you come out Senior Wrangler at the end +of it, and they put your picture in the papers. And then you go down, +and what glory do you get from it? There's aye one way of getting +yourself known here, if you're a man of brains, and that's at the +Union. Go round the rooms and look at the pictures of the Presidents +from the beginning. Why, man, there's not a dozen of them that isn't +known to the world at large. That's fame. And it's the sort of fame +that's worth having. Colloguing wi' lords an' that is a puir thing to +it." + +"You're right, M'Gee," cried Mr. Binney, springing up, "You're right. +A lord! What's a lord and all his hangers-on? Froth! Dregs! Dirt! +as you rightly remark. I won't have my boy associating with such." + +"Leave your boy alone," said M'Gee. "He is a boy, and does very well +as he is. You and I are men, and we'll make use of this place which +most of them don't know the value of. Study the questions of the day, +give a lot of preparation to your speeches, and speak every time the +house sits. Force 'em to take account of you and you'll come out top." + +"I will," said Mr. Binney, now greatly excited. "I _can_ come out top +if I want to. I know I can. You and I will be carried down to +posterity, M'Gee, as two of the greatest Presidents the Union has ever +had. To-day's Monday. To-morrow I speak on the vaccination question. +I don't take any interest in it, but I'll get the subject up thoroughly +in the meantime, and my speech will surprise them." + +And so Mr. Binney changed his social aspirations, and wrote long +letters to Mrs. Higginbotham describing the acclamations with which he +was received when he rose to speak at the Union, and painting in vivid +colours the honours paid to the occupant of the President's chair, that +chair which had been filled by so many illustrious men. + +He and M'Gee spoke every Tuesday in that term. M'Gee was intolerably +dogmatic, metaphysical and long-winded, always heard the secretary's +bell ring before he had half finished his argument, and invariably +emptied the house of all but the long-suffering officials whenever he +rose to his feet. Mr. Binney as surely filled it. He was a wind-bag, +but a wind-bag who delighted his audience in the same way as a monkey +on an organ is a source of appreciation not so much for its innate +humour as for the unstudied expression of its personality. It was +quite true that Mr. Binney roused the applause of the assembly. The +incipient statesmen lolling on the benches or writing notes on their +knees or strolling up to have a word with the President in his seat of +state, cheered him on, laughed uproariously at his witticisms as well +as at his studied and serious periods, and could never have enough of +him. It was a long time since any speaker at the Union had amused his +audience so well, and he was in the seventh heaven of delight at his +popularity until the elections for the officers at the end of the term, +when both he and M'Gee stood for the committee, and appeared at the +bottom of the list, M'Gee with thirty votes and Mr. Binney with six. +This was a serious blow to him, and he began to realise that he had +been looked upon as a buffoon. + +But before this other things had happened. Although debarred from the +society of those with whom he had at first tried to ally himself, Mr. +Binney had contracted many acquaintanceships with men of his own year +and others who did not place the value of their friendship very high. +The boys fresh from school who had come up at the same time as himself +looked upon him as a great joke, ate his breakfasts and luncheons and +occasional dinners, and asked him to their own in return. As he showed +himself anxious to be considered one of themselves, they obliged him, +with perhaps more familiarity and slappings on the back than they +usually made use of to one another. But Mr. Binney enjoyed it and felt +he was getting on famously. He greatly appreciated the tales of daring +which freshmen love to tell one another, about exciting runs from +avenging Proctors, and smart, one-sided conversations with Deans, in +which the freshman is always represented as using such witty and +convincing arguments that the Dean can only sit and listen, and is glad +to get rid of him at last at any price if he will only allow the +management of the college to remain in its present inefficient hands a +little longer. Mr. Binney had not as yet emulated any of these deeds +of daring, for he still looked upon the authorities with considerable +awe, and was turning his attention for the most part towards getting +his work ready for the first part of the Littlego and maintaining his +reputation at the Union. But he thought them very fine for all that, +and it was not long before he fell. + +Among his fellow-freshmen was one, Brandon, a Rugby football-player, +who had once or twice played for the University. He was not a Blue +yet, but he was the next best thing to it, and Mr. Binney cultivated +his society in the intervals of his more serious pursuits. Brandon had +a friend called Howden who was a Blue, a great, noisy, good-natured, +ignorant ox, who was in constant danger of being sent down for his +numerous breaches of discipline. + +Howden came into Brandon's rooms one morning to fish for a dinner, his +affairs being in a chronic state of financial depression. He used no +unnecessary finesse in stating his ends. + +"I've taken my name off hall to-night," he said, "and don't know where +to feed. Got anything going, Brandy?" + +"I'm going to dine with Binney," said Brandon. "You'd better come too." + +"What! that stuck-up ass!" said Howden. "Didn't know you knew him. +No, thanks. I don't mix with Bloods." + +"Oh, I don't mean Lucy Binney," said Brandon, "I don't know him. The +bantam's my pal." + +"What! that little old man!" exclaimed Howden. "Whatever do you want +to go and dine with him for? He'll report you to the dons if you make +a row, and I don't care for dining where I can't enjoy myself." + +"My dear chap," said Brandon, "you can make as much row as you like. +He'll be all the better pleased. He's a tremendous little sportsman. +He gives you the best fizz and as much as you want of it." + +"The deuce he does! All right, I'll come, Brandy. I don't know him. +I suppose that don't matter." + +"Not a bit," said Brandon. "I'll make that all right. 19A Jesus Lane, +eight o'clock." + +"Right you are," said Howden. "Don't forget. I shall turn up." + +Mr. Binney was as pleased as Punch when he learnt that he was at last +going to be honoured by the company of a Blue, and made an excuse to +write a note to Minshull in which he casually mentioned that he was +expecting Howden, "who plays back for the 'Varsity," to dinner that +night. + +Howden came and made himself agreeable to his host. Mr. Binney was +delighted to find that such a great man was not inclined to stand on +any ceremony. The rest of the party were freshmen, who were also +inclined to treat the great Howden with deference, but in the course of +the dinner the deference vanished, and the company got hilarious and on +perfectly good terms with one another. After dinner they "ragged," and +played a little game of "Soccer" with a sofa cushion, in the course of +which Mr. Binney got the wind knocked out of his body, and was not +sorry when his landlord came up to inform him that the chandelier in +the room below had fallen down. + +"Let's go round and rag old Tubby Vane," said Howden. + +Vane was another football Blue, and lived in college. So the party +moved round in a body to the New Court. Vane kept on the third floor, +and was out, so his visitors were baffled for the moment. + +"There's old Miniken keeps below," said Mr. Binney, who was enjoying +himself to the full in this distinguished company. "Let's go and rag +_him_." + +Miniken was a Union light, a quiet reading man, when he was not +thundering forth Radical views in the debates. Mr. Binney did not know +him very well, but wished to display the brilliant Howden to his +astonished gaze. + +"All right," said Howden. "Never heard of him, but I daresay he keeps +very good whisky. Come on." + +Miniken's oak was sported. + +"He's skulking," said Howden. "Let's kick his oak in." + +"Hi! Miniken! Come out of that, you old beggar," yelled Mr. Binney; +but all was silence. + +Howden took a short run and kicked in a panel. Mr. Binney took a short +run at the same panel, and got his foot wedged. When he had been +extricated with unnecessary violence by his companions, a combined +assault was made upon the oak, which presently gave way. The rooms +were empty. + +Howden turned up the lights and made a search for something to drink, +which was unsuccessful, as Miniken was a teetotaller. Then they "made +hay" of his rooms, and, after completely changing their aspect, left, +to avoid an interview with a porter who was coming up the staircase to +see what the disturbance was about. Mr. Binney never doubted but that +Miniken would be quite as amused as themselves when he came back, and +not a little flattered at receiving a visit from the august Howden, if +he found out who was responsible for the altered appearance of his +apartments. + +When Miniken did return he was naturally annoyed at the discovery of +what had taken place. He obtained from the porter the names of his +invaders, and sat down and wrote a letter of complaint to the Senior +Dean. Then he put his room to rights and went to bed. + +In the meantime Mr. Binney went home, greatly pleased with his +evening's entertainment. Before retiring to rest he wrote a full +account of it to Mrs. Higginbotham, and expatiated on the popularity +that must accrue to him from having made a friend of Howden, who, +before parting from him, had assured him that he was one of the best +fellows he had ever met, and that he would stick by him and come and +dine with him whenever he liked. + +The next day Mr. Binney was requested to call on the Junior Dean at a +specified hour. He did so with some inward trepidation, and waited in +the ante-room where a secretary was at work, who informed him that the +Dean was engaged, but would see him in a few minutes. Presently steps +were heard on the staircase, and to his surprise Lucius entered the +room. + +"Halloa! you hauled too?" said the little man with a sheepish grin. +"What for?" + +"I don't know. Chapels, I suppose," said Lucius, who had heard of his +father's escapade, and whose face was covered with a deep blush. + +"I hope we shan't get gated," said Mr. Binney. "What are you going to +say to the old chap?" + +Before Lucius had time to reply the Dean's door opened, and Mr. Binney +was summoned into the presence of the "old chap," who had been in +frocks when "Binney's Food for Poultry" was first becoming known. + +"Sit down, Mr. Binney," said the Dean, who appeared unaccountably +nervous. "I see you have not kept the requisite number of chapels +since the beginning of term. Is there any reason for that? I see by +my list that you have not been once to chapel on a Sunday." + +Mr. Binney breathed a sigh of relief and drew himself up. + +"I prefer to attend my own place of worship on the Sabbath," he said, +twisting his cap by the tassel. + +"Ah! you are perhaps a Nonconformist," said the Dean. + +"I am," said Mr. Binney; "and I'm not ashamed of it." + +"No reason to be, Mr. Binney," said the Dean. "I needn't trouble you +any more on that score then," and he made a pencil note on the paper +before him. "But there is another matter," he went on, "which, I +confess, it surprises me to have to bring before a man of +your--er--standing. I understand that you and some others broke in the +door of Mr. Miniken's rooms last night, and took most unwarrantable +liberties with his furniture. I could hardly believe it, but I am +assured that it is so." + +"It was a mere freak, sir," said Mr. Binney boldly. "I went round with +Howden--the football Blue----" + +"You needn't bring in anybody else's name," said the Dean. + +"Well, we went round to call on--on another football Blue, but he was +out, and as old Miniken, who is a friend of mine, happened to live +below him, I said, 'Let's go and rouse him up.' He was sported, so we +kicked in his oak for a lark. We didn't mean any harm. Of course, I'm +quite willing to pay for repairing the door." + +The Dean passed his hand over his mouth. + +"That you will have to do, of course, you and the others between you," +he said. "But I may as well tell you, Mr. Binney, that we don't +recognise such larks here. If you want to behave like a troublesome +boy, you had better go somewhere else. You are gated at eight for a +fortnight, and don't let me hear of any such piece of folly again, or +you won't get off so easily." + +Mr. Binney took himself off feeling rather ashamed, but still a little +pleased with himself. "Gated at eight for a fortnight," he said, as he +joined his son in the ante-room, where Blathgowrie had also made his +appearance. + +"Serve you right, you little ass," said Blathgowrie as Lucius entered +the presence chamber. "Now run along and play." + +"You were not with your father, I think, when the door in the New Court +was broken in?" said the Dean. + +"No, I wasn't," said Lucius shortly, his face a deep red. + +The Dean threw a quick glance at him. + +"Is your father--?" he began, and then stopped. + +"Off his head?" said Lucius. "I don't know. I never thought he was +until he came up here. I know _I_ shall be, pretty soon, if this goes +on." + +"I didn't mean that," said the Dean, "I was going to ask if he intended +to stop here until he takes a degree." + +"I suppose so, if he isn't sent down first," said Lucius bitterly. + +The Dean could not disguise a smile. "Don't get downhearted about it, +Binney," he said kindly, "we've all got our little trials to bear. One +of mine is having continually to ask undergraduates why they don't come +to chapel. I see you haven't kept a single chapel this term. How is +that?" + +"I was afraid I might meet my father," said Lucius. + +The Dean smiled again. + +"Your father has conscientious objections to joining in our services," +he said, "and I'm afraid I couldn't accept that as an excuse in any +case. Have you been anywhere instead?" + +"I go to King's sometimes." + +"Well, I think you had better come to Trinity sometimes too in the +future. Good-night, Binney." + +His introduction to Howden was the beginning of Mr. Binney's fall from +steadiness. He soon made the acquaintance of other athletes of similar +character to Howden, and was very proud of being seen about with them. +These accommodating gentlemen had no sort of objection to his being +constantly in their company, so long as he fed them generously and put +no check on their boisterous behaviour when he was with them. And Mr. +Binney was far from wishing to do this. The new cap which he had +bought under Lucius's directions was soon exchanged for a very old and +battered one. Howden and all his friends were rowdies, and Mr. Binney +in his mild way became a rowdy too. + +One Tuesday evening towards the end of the term, Lucius found himself +in the gallery at the Union listening to a debate on the motion: "That +this house views with alarm the growing tyranny of University +officials," and sat dejectedly through an uproariously applauded speech +from his father, in the course of which Mr. Binney inquired "why a +fellow shouldn't smoke in cap and gown if he wanted to," and was twice +called to order for alluding to "the progginses." + +"Come out of this; it makes me sick," he said to his companion. They +went out and strolled slowly down Jesus Lane to Edwards's billiard +rooms. Opposite the "Pitt," Mr. Binney passed them with two of his +noisy friends, carrying his gown on his arm. He did not notice them, +nor a Proctor who was coming along Park Street, and Lucius had the +gratification of seeing his father stopped at the corner, and +peremptorily ordered to put on his gown by the Proctor. Mr. Binney did +as he was told, taking off his gown again when the Proctor had turned +his back, and was let into his lodgings feeling himself the very devil +of a fellow. + +After his first escapade with Howden, Mr. Binney was a little upset by +a letter he received from Mrs. Higginbotham in answer to the one in +which he had given her an account of the proceedings. + +"You must not let yourself be led away by your high spirits," wrote +Mrs. Higginbotham, "and pray be careful that these new grand young +friends you have made do not lead you astray. I should like you to +keep a good character with your masters and bring home a good report at +the end of the term. My dear father often used to say that he would +rather my brothers won the conduct prize at school than any other, and +they always did so, which pleased my father very much until he +discovered that they used to buy the prizes themselves out of their +very liberal allowance of pocket money and write their master's name in +them, which was not right, and earned them a whipping from Mr. +Wilkinson who was at that time the head of the Lewisham Academy for +Young Gentlemen, where they were educated, as well as another from my +father, which they told me was far the worse of the two, as I can quite +credit, because my dear father, who made his own way in the world, had +been employed in early life in a furniture warehouse, and among his +duties was that of beating carpets." + +Mr. Binney wrote in answer that little occurrences such as the one in +which he had taken part were common in Cambridge and increased the fame +of those who inaugurated them, and rebuked Mrs. Higginbotham for +talking of his "masters." "The 'Varsity is not a school, my dear +Martha," wrote Mr. Binney, "and we are allowed a great deal of freedom +to amuse ourselves as we please." + +Mr. Binney and Lucius now saw very little of one another, but before +Mr. Binney had allied himself with Howden and his crew, Lucius had paid +him a visit one afternoon and found a young man with a long, solemn +face not unlike Minshull's sitting on Mr. Binney's sofa. + +"Ah, Lucius," said Mr. Binney, "I'm glad you have come. This is your +mother's cousin, John Jermyn, whose father you may have heard me speak +of as a respected clergyman in Norfolk. John tells me he has gained a +scholarship at Queens' and I am very glad to hear it--very glad. It is +most laudable of him. We must go and call on him when we have time. +Let me see, where is Queens'? That little college at the end of the +Backs with a wooden bridge, isn't it? Quite so. A very nice little +college indeed. I should have liked to have been at Queens' myself if +I hadn't been at Trinity. Pity you couldn't come to Trinity, John. +However, we can't all be at the best college, can we?" + +After a little more patronage from his uncle, John Jermyn took his +leave. + +"You must look that young fellow up, Lucius," said Mr. Binney, "and he +tells me his sister Elizabeth is at Girton. They both came up this +term. A clever family. You must go and call on her too--I believe +it's allowed--I don't care about going out there myself. Their mother +was a great friend of your dear mother's when they were girls together. +We never saw much of her after she was married, for her husband held +his head high, although I have never heard that he was at Trinity or +any good college as a young man. It is our turn to hold our heads high +now, but you must certainly call on John and Elizabeth, and show them +that we are not too proud to recognise our relations." + +Lucius did call on John Jermyn soon afterwards and asked him to lunch. +The two young men found they had very little in common and the +acquaintanceship dropped. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE NEWNHAM GIRL + +The morning hours in Cambridge are for books, the afternoon for +exercise, and the evening for social intercourse. So, at least, the +majority of the undergraduate members of the University regard them, +and sometimes throw in an extra hour or two of work between tea and +dinner. Of course there are those who work all the evening as well as +all the morning, and there are others who do not work at all; but the +morning for lectures and books is a general rule, and one that has few +exceptions, however squeezed up the morning may be between late +breakfast and early luncheon. If you go into the Great Court of +Trinity, let us say about ten minutes to eleven in the morning, you +will find it, comparatively speaking, deserted. Quite deserted it +never is, unless in the dead hours of night, and not always then; but +now its chief occupants appear to be the bed-makers, who empty their +pails down the gratings, or stand for a few minutes' gossip by their +respective staircases. Every now and then an idler passes through in a +leisurely manner, or a don scurries across the grass in a terrible +hurry. White-aproned cooks from the college kitchens collect plate and +crockery from the various gyp-rooms and carry them away in green boxes +balanced on their heads. Tradesmen's boys, their baskets on their +arms, pass from one staircase to another, quite unawed by their +surroundings, whistling as if their errands were taking them down a +street of numbered houses instead of to the studious rooms of a +venerable college, for centuries devoted to learning. But of the +undergraduate life which is so busy in the courts of a college at other +times of the day there is very little, for most undergraduates are +listening to lecturers or coaches, or reading in their own rooms. + +But the hour strikes and everything is changed. Men in gowns of blue +or black, with note-books under their arms, come pouring out of the +lecture-rooms into the court. Interspersed with them are the +lecturers, laden with books, their long gowns and ribbons flying; and +most curious of all, little groups of girls stand about the court +waiting until it is time for another lecturer to appear and dart +hurriedly into the room where his wisdom is to keep them entranced for +the next hour. How horrified our grandfathers would have been could +they have pictured girls and men sitting in the same lecture-room +to-day, and how incredulous, could they have been told what a very +little difference such an unforeseen arrangement would make in the +daily life of their colleges. For the women are already in Cambridge. +They have their own colleges, and if they have not yet their own +lecturers, they make very good use of ours. And, strange to say, +nobody takes much notice of them, or realises that they are there at +all, except when they form their little groups round the college +doorways, or when their names are read out before those of the men in +the Senate House, or when they want something which Cambridge with all +its chivalry is not quite prepared to give them. + +One such little group of girls was standing by the Trinity Chapel one +bright November morning in the first term of Lucius's second year, +waiting for the learned gentleman who was to lecture to them during the +next hour on some subject connected with the Classical Tripos. The +learned gentleman was a little late and all the other lecturers had by +this time penned their flocks and were busily engaged in feeding, and +in some cases shearing them. The men who were booked for the same +lecture as the girls were standing in twos and threes a little distance +away, or strolling up and down the flagged pathways. At ten minutes +past the hour the lecturer was seen approaching at a hurried pace from +the direction of Neville's Court, and a minute later, girls, men, and +lecturer had disappeared, and the Great Court had settled down again to +its normal morning condition of dignified calm. + +One of the girls was conspicuously attractive. She wore a neat costume +of blue serge and a hat that showed up the gold of her pretty head. +Her eyes were blue and innocent, her little nose had a mischievous tilt +to it, and her mouth was like Cupid's bow. These last named +attractions were not visible to Lucius Binney, who sat at the corner of +a desk a few rows behind her; but he had a good view of the soft curves +of a delicate tinted cheek, and a little shell-like ear perched +coquettishly underneath the wavy brown hair, and, to do him justice, +these beauties were not unappreciated by him, for he paid a good deal +more attention to them than to the dulcet tones of the learned +lecturer. It was now about the middle of the Michaelmas term, and +Lucius had already sat in the same corner and looked at the same girl +three times a week since the beginning of term, eleven times in all, +and each time he looked his sense of the beautiful was more satisfied +than before. Besides minor varieties the girl sometimes wore another +costume of grey-green cloth and a felt hat to match, with a woodcock's +tip in it. Lucius was like the lover in Tennyson's poem who speaks of +his lady's dresses:-- + + "Now I know her but in two, + Nor can pronounce upon it, + If one should ask me whether + The habit, hat and feather, + Or the frock and gipsy bonnet + Be the neater and completer; + For nothing could be sweeter + Than maiden Maud in either." + + +He sometimes spoke of her to Dizzy, who attended the same lecture, and +whose admiration of the girl was æsthetically great, but had not +succeeded in penetrating his feelings. These two would hang about the +court, chatting unconcernedly together, while she went out through the +Great Gate with her companions. After the first week, when Lucius's +appreciation of her charms had begun to bite a little, she sometimes +gave him the merest glance out of the corners of her blue eyes as she +passed him. There seemed to be a trace of amusement lurking in the +glance, and Lucius understood that his admiration, although by no means +obtrusive, had been observed--and dared he hope in some measure +accepted?--by its object. + +"Oh, Dizzy, old man, she really _is_--that girl!" sighed Lucius, after +silently watching the blue serge coat and skirt and the fair hair under +the little hat disappear round the corner. "She really _is_--" + +What she really was did not transpire, but Dizzy quite understood and +agreed. + +"She's a topper," said Dizzy. "I can't say fairer than that. She's a +topper." + +"Have you noticed those little fluffy curls on her neck?" inquired +Lucius. "With most girls they stick out straight and look as if they +ought to be tucked in somewhere. But hers don't." + +"Why don't you take a snap-shot at them with a Kodak in the +lecture-room?" suggested Dizzy. + +Lucius did buy a Kodak after this, and stayed away from the charmed +lecture-room one morning with a heavy heart, in order to take +photographs of the girl as she went through the court to and from the +lecture. He ensconced himself in a friend's rooms on the kitchen +staircase, the nearest position he could gain, for he did not want her +to see him standing in the court; but after pressing the button +feverishly six or eight times, and waiting impatiently for three weeks +until the other people had done the rest, he was rewarded with several +curious pictures of fog effects, only one of which showed a scene which +could be recognised as the Great Court, with a few dark little spots +some miles away, which Lucius interpreted as the girl and her +companions leaving the college, but did not gain much satisfaction from +the possession of them even with the help of a magnifying glass. + +The girl was a Newnhamite (hideous word!). Lucius and Dizzy knew that +much, though they could not discover her name. She must have known +theirs, for the lecturer was in the habit of calling them over after +each lecture. Unfortunately he omitted to do so in the case of the +lady students. + +"It's just my luck, you know," said Lucius disconsolately. "I've got a +cousin of sorts at Girton. I ought to have looked her up before now--I +promised the governor I would--and I'd have done it pretty quick, you +bet, if she had had the sense to go to the other place." + +"What is she like?" asked Dizzy. + +"I don't know. I've never seen her. She is a sister of my cousin at +Queens'." + +"Oh, I should look her up if I were you. She may be pretty," said +Dizzy. + +"Have you seen my cousin at Queens'?" + +Dizzy had, and acknowledged that the inferences were not encouraging. + +"Still there's no telling," he said. "She may be a regular topper." + +"Her father's a country parson," said Lucius, "and she has never been +anywhere. I don't see the fun of tramping out to Girton to see a fat +girl with spectacles." + +"And a space between her belt and the top of her skirt with hooks and +eyes showing," added Dizzy. "No, I agree with you it isn't good +enough, although, of course, she may be a topper, you can't tell." + +Lucius did bicycle out to Girton before the end of the term along a +straight and appallingly hideous road, only to find Miss Jermyn "not at +home" at the end of it, and then dismissed his cousin Elizabeth and +Girton College from his mind, and indulged himself in roseate dreams of +the Newnham girl instead. Although he was constantly plunged in shame +at the behaviour of his father, and was gradually growing poorer and +poorer as time went on, owing to Mr. Binney's relentless views on the +subject of filial conduct, his first term at Cambridge in the +companionship of his father was not altogether an unhappy one. + +At the end of it Mr. Binney went in for the first part of his Little-go +and failed ignominiously, for his work had greatly deteriorated since +he had been admitted to the friendship of Howden and the rest. But the +disquieting news did not reach him until he had left Cambridge at the +beginning of the Christmas vacation, and that blow was not added to the +one caused by his failure at the Union, and another which befel him at +the end of term in the shape of an interview with his Tutor. Mr. +Rimington looked grave as Mr. Binney entered his presence, and shook +hands with him without his usual smile. + +"Sit down, please, Mr. Binney," he said. "I didn't send for you when I +heard about that foolish affair in Mr. Miniken's rooms, because I +thought you must have taken part in it against your will, and I +couldn't but believe that nothing of the sort would happen again. But +I learn, to my surprise, that you seem to have made a--a specialty of +that sort of behaviour, and however unpleasant the duty may be, I must +remonstrate seriously with you on the course you have adopted here." + +Mr. Binney's mouth was dry. Mr. Rimington's tone was more conciliatory +than that of the Junior Dean, but the latter, after his first few +words, had treated him just like any other undergraduate, while Mr. +Rimington addressed him as a middle-aged gentleman who had been making +a fool of himself; and Mr. Binney disliked this above all things. + +Mr. Rimington paused, and Mr. Binney felt he was expected to speak. + +"I was gated for that affair of Miniken's, sir," he said with a gulp, +"and the subject ought to be at an end. It was foolish, perhaps, but +it was all done in good part, and I had no idea the man would make such +a fuss about it. Since then I am not aware of having done anything to +bring my conduct under the notice of the officials of the college." + +Mr. Rimington heard him out in grave silence. "You have done nothing +that has actually had to be punished," he said, "but if you imagine, +Mr. Binney, that your conduct has not come very seriously under the +notice of the officials of the college, you are mistaken. Behaviour +that would not call for much remark from a boy of eighteen or nineteen +is a different matter in a man of your age. For one thing it is +demoralising in the extreme to the undergraduates with whom you +associate. It is a very disagreeable task to have to point this out to +you, and I must say that it surprises me exceedingly that there should +be any necessity for my having to do so." He paused so as to give Mr. +Binney a chance of speaking, who, however, took no advantage of his +opportunity, but sat gazing on the carpet. His attitude seemed to show +that he was taking his Tutor's remonstrances to heart, but a slight +frown on his brow and the set of his mouth belied that assumption. + +"Have you anything to say, Mr. Binney?" asked the Tutor. + +"I should like to hear what _you_ have got to say first, sir," said Mr. +Binney. "Then I will give utterance to my opinions." + +"Very well," said Mr. Rimington. "Then I had better say what I have +got to say in as few words and as strongly as possible. When we talked +over your coming up here as an undergraduate in the spring, I pointed +out that it would hardly be fair to your son to be under your constant +supervision, and I pointed out other reasons why I thought you should +reconsider your decision. You did not agree with me, and the +objections were not strong enough to induce the college to refuse your +application when you persisted in making it. No man in his senses +could have foreseen that at the end of your first term, your son, who +has been here over a year, should bear a high character in the college, +while you, his father, should be giving us a great deal of trouble in +matters of conduct. If that could have been foreseen I need scarcely +say that we should not have admitted you. + +"Now, look here, Mr. Rimington," said Mr. Binney, with his most +uncompromising air. "I take great objection to your manner of speaking +to me. My son I refuse to discuss. As far as I myself am concerned, +you have acknowledged that with one exception, for which I have paid +the appointed penalty, my conduct has not been such as to have called +for any special remark, supposing I had been of the age of the ordinary +undergraduate with whom you have to deal. I take my stand on that +statement. These references to my age are offensive to me. I am here +in the position of an ordinary undergraduate, and I demand fair +treatment as such. That puts the matter in a nutshell." + +Mr. Rimington kept his temper. "You seem to forget, Mr. Binney," he +said quietly, "that no ordinary undergraduate would be permitted to +speak to me in those terms. You take advantage of your age, which I +think is about the same as mine, to address me as an equal, but wish it +to be ignored entirely in my estimation of your behaviour. That, of +course, is an unreasonable demand, and one that I cannot entertain. I +sent for you to remonstrate with you on the course that you have seen +fit to adopt. But as you have taken my remonstrance so badly, I must +point out to you that my powers go far beyond a mere remonstrance, and +if you are incapable of seeing yourself in the wrong and mending your +ways, the college will have to think very seriously of asking you to +take your name off the books." + +"Then, sir," said Mr. Binney, now very angry, "I have to inform you +that I shall not comply with the request of the college. I am here, +and here I shall remain. The treatment I have received I consider +infamous. I demand to be let alone. I shall keep on the right side of +the law in the future, as I have done in the past, and I challenge--I +_dare_ the college to touch me. Let me remind you, Mr. Rimington, that +this University has been thrown open--yes, _open_, sir. The old +iniquitous Test Acts have been done away. One man has as much right +here as another. If I am interfered with further, I will raise such a +storm throughout the country, that not only Trinity College but +Cambridge University shall tremble in its shoes. I will wish you +good-morning, sir; and let me advise you to take my words to heart," +and with this Mr. Binney took himself out of his Tutor's rooms, and +went straight round to the Union to write a fiery letter of indignation +to the _Daily Chronicle_, unmasking the unwarrantable interference with +the liberties of the subject practised by the authorities of a +"well-known college in a well-known University." His letter was not +inserted. So the storm he had threatened to raise delayed its raging +for the present. + +After his departure, Mr. Rimington pondered for some time on his course +of action, and then wrote the following letter:-- + + +"DEAR MR. BINNEY,--I enclose the _exeat_ which you will require in +order to enable you to leave Cambridge for the Christmas vacation. I +have dated it for to-morrow. You will, I think, on consideration +regret your manner towards me in our conversation of this morning, and +I shall be glad to receive any expressions of regret you may feel +inclined to make. I must also repeat my statement that it is +subversive of all discipline in the college that a gentleman in your +peculiar position should constitute himself a leader in disorderly +behaviour, and warn you that if such behaviour is persisted in you will +not be allowed to remain here.--Yours sincerely, + + "ROBERT RIMINGTON." + + +"Let 'em try to remove me, that's all," said Mr. Binney, when he +received this very moderate communication. "They'll be sorry for it +all their lives. _Exeat_ dated for to-morrow! What does he mean? I +don't want to go down to-morrow. A piece of impertinence! I shan't +go." + +But on consideration Mr. Binney did go down on the appointed day, and +having arrived at a more reasonable frame of mind after a few days' +residence in Russell Square, wrote to Mr. Rimington that he regretted +that he had been led in the heat of the moment to express himself in a +way he could not justify, and that, while he still stood his stand on a +position which, he thought, would prove to be unassailable, there was +no reason why he and Mr. Rimington should not agree to differ in a +perfectly friendly and gentlemanly way. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ME. BINNEY GIVES A DINNER AND RECEIVES A REBUFF + +Mr. Binney took advantage of his unexpectedly early arrival in town for +the Christmas vacation to pay a surprise visit to Mrs. Higginbotham. +He found that good lady seated by her drawing-room fire as on the +occasion of that momentous visit with the account of which this history +opens. With the glad cry "Peter!" "Martha!" these two ardent souls +were locked in a close embrace, which afforded great gratification to +themselves, and not a little to the parlour-maid, who had delayed her +exit in order to satisfy herself as to the warmth of their greeting. + +"My dear Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham, "I did not expect to see you +for another two days at least. How is it you have managed to come home +for your holidays so early?" + +"We don't have holidays at Cambridge, Martha," said Mr. Binney; "we +call them vacations. And of course we can come away when we like--that +is if the dons will let us." + +"Well, it is a very agreeable surprise to see you, Peter," said Mrs. +Higginbotham. "But how you have altered! Why, you have cut off your +beautiful whiskers!" + +"Yes," said Mr. Binney. "Fellows don't wear whiskers at Cambridge. It +is considered old-fashioned. How do you like the change, Martha?" + +"I don't know," said Mrs. Higginbotham, doubtfully. "But you should +have asked _my_ leave first, you know, Peter, before taking a step like +that," she added, archly. + +Mr. Binney enjoyed this. He became facetious, affected to dig Mrs. +Higginbotham in the ribs, and jocularly cried, "Oh! you saucy little +skipper!" + +Mrs. Higginbotham was scandalised. + +"Peter!" she exclaimed, "surely you forget yourself." + +"Pooh! Martha," said Mr. Binney, "don't be old-fashioned. That's the +way young men go on now-a-days." + +"Is it?" said Mrs. Higginbotham, only half reassured. "I don't think I +much like it. It isn't respectful. But I'm so pleased to see you +back, Peter, that I don't mind _how_ you go on. And you certainly do +look younger, somehow--I suppose it is from cutting off your whiskers. +But do you know I think it makes you look _smaller_ too." + +"Ah!" said Peter, "I used to be sorry I was rather short. I'm not now. +It's a distinct score. I've got a great piece of news for you, Martha. +I'm going to steer the first Lent boat next term, if all goes well. +The first boat captain told me the other day that I was the most useful +man they'd got, if I didn't play the fool and kept my head; he said if +I steered well in the Lents I should probably steer the first boat in +the Mays; and that means, Martha, that next year I shall very likely be +cox of the 'Varsity and get my Blue. Think of that, now!" + +"Lor!" said Mrs. Higginbotham, "And very nice too, I'm sure. But why +are you wearing a tie with the Oxford colours instead of the Cambridge?" + +"Oh dear! Martha!" exclaimed Peter with some irritation. "Will you +_never_ understand these things? These are the First Trinity colours. +Nobody can wear the Cambridge colours unless he's a Blue. And I'm not +a Blue yet." + +"Aren't you?" said Mrs. Higginbotham. "Well, never mind, I'm sure you +will be some day if you do your lessons--I mean your work well, and +satisfy the Professors. And now, Peter, there is one little thing that +I wish to speak to you about. That time you got into trouble. I was +very grieved to hear about that. My poor dear father always used to +say----" + +"Oh, bother your father, Martha!" exclaimed Peter. "What did _he_ know +about life at the 'Varsity? I told you in my letter that nobody at +Cambridge thinks anything of a lark like that except the fusty old +dons--and who cares for what _they_ think?" + +"It isn't polite of you to say, 'bother my father,' Peter," rejoined +Mrs. Higginbotham with some warmth. "He was a very good father to me, +and I never gave him a moment's trouble till the day of his death. I +did think that after the lesson you had received--being locked into +your bedroom every night at eight o'clock as I gathered from your +letter--that you would have seen the folly of such behaviour. But I am +sorry to see from this paper which you sent me the other day, that this +is not the case." + +Mrs. Higginbotham took up from the table at her side one of those +ephemeral journals which come and go at the Universities with almost as +much frequency as the successive generations of undergraduates who +produce them. This one was called _The New Court Chronicle_, and had +been started by one of Mr. Binney's Rugby football acquaintances. In +it was a weekly letter in imitation of those that appear in some of the +London Society papers, and one paragraph ran as follows:-- + +"Millie has come up here for a week to see something of her younger +brother, Arthur, who has entered at Trinity, and is quite a _persona +grata_ with the 'smart' set at that most _chic_ of all the colleges. +He took his brother-in-law to a dinner at Mr. 'Peter' Binney's rooms +one night, and Sir George came away quite charmed with the _verve_ and +_élan_ of his diminutive host. Sir George says that there was not so +much wine drunk as in his days at Cambridge, but what there was, was of +excellent quality and seemed to _go further_. Little Mr. Binney +insisted on making a speech, and caused uproarious merriment by +remarking that he _saw double_ the number of friends he had invited, +but he was pleased to welcome them all, and as many more of the same +sort as liked to come. Owing to the sultriness of the weather, Mr. +Binney was unfortunately seized with a slight indisposition before the +party broke up, but he was comfortably settled in bed by his guests +before they left, and Millie met him in Jesus Lane the next morning +looking as sprightly as ever, and had a short conversation with him, in +which he humorously remarked that he had never turned his back upon don +or devil yet." + +Mrs. Higginbotham opened the paper and pointed to this paragraph. + +"It was indeed a grief to me to read that, Peter," she said, "and how +you could send it me of your own accord passes my comprehension. +Inattention to study I can overlook, and thoughtless levity of conduct +I can pardon--but _drunkenness_! Oh, Peter, I never thought it would +come to _that_." + +Mr. Binney had been getting very red during the passing of this +exordium on his conduct. + +"Pooh, Martha!" he burst out at last. "How could I have known that you +would take it seriously. You don't think all that rubbish is true, do +you? It is all made up and put in for a lark. I sent it to you +because--well, because I thought it would please you to see how popular +and well-known I have become in Cambridge. If you don't like it, throw +it in the fire." + +"But if it is not true, Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham--"and I'm sure +I'm very much relieved to hear that it is not--why do you allow such +things to be put into a paper? It distinctly says you 'saw double,' +and I have always understood that to be an unfailing sign of--of +_tipsiness_. I call it disgraceful taking away a gentleman's character +like that. Supposing it should come round to Dr. Toller's ears, or +some others of the congregation? And you a deacon, too, and so much +looked up to." + +"Dr. Toller!" echoed Mr. Binney with much scorn. "What do I care for +Dr. Toller? _He's_ not a 'Varsity man; he doesn't understand these +things." + +"He has got a University degree," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "Indeed, +_two_ degrees. He is always put in the bills as Rev. Samuel Toller, +B.A., D.D." + +"That's nothing," said Mr. Binney. "He wasn't at Oxford or Cambridge. +The rest don't count." + +"Oh, don't they! I didn't know," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "But, at any +rate, I shouldn't allow those things to be said of you, Peter, +especially as they are not true. It might get about, and I shouldn't +like that. Now, tell me about some of your speeches at the Young Men's +Christian Association. I am so glad you----" + +"The Union, Martha! The Union!" shouted Mr. Binney, annoyed beyond +bounds at Mrs. Higginbotham's consistent inability to grasp the true +inwardness of University life. + +"Well, the Union then," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "It's the same thing, +isn't it?" + +"No, it's _not_ the same thing," said Mr. Binney, and then he calmed +down and gave Mrs. Higginbotham a full and true account of the building +up of his forensic ambitions, and their sad and disastrous downfall. +Mrs. Higginbotham was full of sympathy and womanly consolation. + +"Ah, Martha," said Mr. Binney at last, "what a treasure I have gained +in your love! My barque will never suffer shipwreck so long as the +haven of your true woman's breast is open to it." + +"I trust not," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "And now let us have tea up. I +expect Annie will have toasted some muffins." + +Lucius arrived home the next afternoon, and brought Dizzy with him for +a few days. The point of view from which he had hitherto regarded his +father had been so rudely altered by Mr. Binney's behaviour during his +first term at Cambridge that Lucius had been unable to face the ordeal +of the first few days alone with him in Russell Square. + +"You know what the governor is, Dizzy," he had said. "It won't be so +bad if you are here for a bit, and we can have a good time. I've got +_some_ money left, although my allowance has been getting smaller and +smaller ever since I came up to Cambridge. We needn't be at home more +than we like, and we can go about a bit and see plays." + +"I should like to come, old man," said Dizzy. "I've got a bit of +splosh laid by, too. I'm an economical beggar and I've let my bills +stand over till next term. We'll have a rare old time. I suppose your +governor won't want to go about with us, will he?" + +"I shouldn't be surprised," said Lucius. "You can never tell what +nonsense he'll be up to now." + +"Oh, well, we must make the best of it, if he does," said Dizzy +cheerfully. "He's not such bad fun if you take him in the right way, +and I can always get on with him very well." + +"He's not your father," said Lucius. + +Dizzy considerately gave thanks inaudibly. + +But when they reached Russell Square they found that a change for the +better had set in in Mr. Binney's behaviour. The responsibilities of a +householder and the head of a large business-house had temporarily +settled down on him again. He went to the City every day for an hour +or two, and spent a good deal of his spare time in the company of Mrs. +Higginbotham, leaving the young men pretty well to their own devices. +He had been brought up to regard theatre going as injurious to the +morals, and, while he did not attempt to prevent Lucius from enjoying +himself in his own way, the remains of an early prejudice prevented his +accompanying him. So Dizzy spent a pleasant week with his friend, and +as he was always cheery and obliging from morning to night, Mr. Binney +was delighted with his company. + +One evening towards the end of Dizzy's visit there was a little +dinner-party in Russell Square. The guests were Mrs. Higginbotham, Dr. +Toller, his wife and daughter, and a sprightly middle-aged lady called +Miss Tupper, who had been a friend of the late Mrs. Binney, whose place +she was generally supposed to be desirous of filling. Mrs. +Higginbotham and she were very cordial to one another when they met, +but there was a delicate sub-acid flavour about their conversation +which hardly seemed in accord with the indelible sweetness of their +respective smiles. + +Mr. Binney sat at the head of the table with Mrs. Toller on his right, +and Mrs. Higginbotham on his left, Lucius at the foot, flanked by Miss +Tupper and Miss Toller. The Reverend Doctor and Dizzy faced one +another. + +"And how do you like University life, Mr. Binney?" inquired Mrs. Toller +sweetly, when her husband had recited an impromptu grace, and infused +as much originality into it as possible, and the company had settled +themselves down to soup and agreeable conversation. + +Mr. Binney, of course, was anxious to talk about Cambridge, but he did +not quite like a question which drew attention to his novice state. + +"Oh, all University men like University life, Mrs. Toller," he replied. +"Though, of course, some are not in a position to appreciate it as much +as others." + +"Oh, Mr. Binney, I'm sure _you_ are in a position to appreciate it," +said Miss Tupper gushingly. + +"I hope I am, Miss Tupper," said Mr. Binney. + +"Who are the people who do _not_ appreciate it?" asked Mrs. Toller. + +This gave Mr. Binney the opportunity he wanted of expatiating on the +prestige to be gained by membership of a good college, and a wide +circle of distinguished athletic acquaintances. Mrs. Toller seemed +much interested and put many questions in a tone of innocent inquiry, +which had the effect of drawing Mr. Binney into a somewhat fuller +account than he would otherwise have given of his manner of life during +the past term. Miss Tupper was enchanted with everything she heard. +She even clapped her hands. + +"Oh, do tell me more, Mr. Binney," she cried. "It is all so _young_. +I simply love to hear about it. Lucius, why don't you back Mr. Binney +up? I believe you are a very wicked boy when you're at college, for +all you are so quiet at home. Oh, fie!" + +Lucius made no reply to this sally. The old feeling towards his father +which had been coming back slowly during the last few days was +disappearing again as the conversation developed, and he ate his dinner +in shamed silence. Miss Tupper became more and more sprightly, but she +devoted herself to Mr. Binney although she was two places away from +him. She was the daughter of a solicitor, while Mrs. Toller's father +had been a bookseller, and she wished to show that lady that the +manners of the upper classes possess a greater breadth and freedom than +those of the people with whom Mrs. Toller had mixed all her life. Mrs. +Higginbotham was very anxious that Mr. Binney should not give Dr. +Toller reason to suppose that his habits had become at all loose during +his short residence at Cambridge, and tried to bring the conversation +down to the more sober aspects of University life, but the Doctor was +enjoying a very good dinner and was inclined to be tolerant. He even +told some anecdotes of his own salad days when he had been a student at +Homerton College, but the mild devilry of his proceedings took such a +long time to narrate, and amounted to so very little when it was +reduced to speech, that his anecdotes fell very flat. Mrs. +Higginbotham gave them rather more than their due share of +appreciation, but Mr. Binney listened with ill-concealed impatience, +and instantly capped each story with a much more highly-spiced one of +his own, while Miss Tupper actually had the temerity to snub the great +man, which exasperated his wife to such an extent that she half made up +her mind to bring her unseemly conduct before the next church meeting. + +Under cover of this conversation Dizzy had been trying to get on terms +with his neighbour. Miss Toller was very young and very shy, but +undoubtedly pretty. Dizzy, that discriminating critic of feminine +beauty, had run his eye cursorily over her upon his first appearance. +"Pity she ain't turned out properly," he had said to Lucius. "She's +worth it. I should like to get her a proper evening frock instead of +that dowdy thing, and take her somewhere to get her hair waved. I +could turn her into a regular topper in no time. Give her a few +lessons on how to walk, and teach her to hold her hands properly and +you wouldn't know her when I'd finished with her." + +"Shouldn't want to; you'd only spoil her," said Lucius. "She's a nice +enough little thing as it is. I've danced with her at children's +parties ever since I can remember." + +"Come now," said Dizzy, "you wouldn't like to see the Newnham beauty +turned out like that of an evening." + +"That's different," said Lucius, with a blush. + +Poor little Miss Toller would have sunk into the earth with shame if +she had heard herself thus discussed. This was her first dinner-party +end she had looked forward to it with tremulous but pleasurable +anticipation. She was going to meet Lucius, and Lucius had always +stood for her as an embodiment of everything that was worthy of +admiration in the opposite sex. She had recently been put in command +of her own small dress allowance, and had expended a good part of her +quarter's income on the frock that Dizzy had criticised so +contemptuously. Lucius had not taken so much notice of her as she had +expected, considering that they had been friends all their lives; and +he seemed unhappy! Poor boy! With feminine intuition she instantly +divined something of the state of things that existed between him and +his father. Hitherto she had regarded Mr. Binney with that respect due +to his age and his standing in her father's congregation. Suddenly she +found herself hating and despising him with a fervour that surprised +even herself, and she would have given anything she possessed, even her +new frock, to be able to console Lucius without appearing to understand +why he was so downcast. Lucius spoke very little to her, although she +sat next to him, and she was too shy to address him first; but now she +had to collect her wits and cope with the embarrassing young man who +sat on her left, who seemed more at ease than she could possibly have +conceived any young man being in the awe-inspiring surroundings of a +set dinner-party, and who spoke and behaved in quite a different manner +from anybody she had ever met before. + +"Oysters!" began Dizzy, as an opening to conversation. "I don't know +whether you know that if you eat a dozen oysters and drink a +wine-glassful of brandy after them, you die." + +Miss Toller had never eaten oysters in her life, nor drunk brandy +except under strong maternal pressure for medicinal purposes, but she +looked rather frightened. "Do you?" she said. + +"Yes," said Dizzy, "the brandy turns the oysters into leather. +Leather's the most indigestible thing you can swallow, although of +course nobody would swallow it if they could help it. But the funny +part of it is, that if you eat a piece of cheese the size of a +walnut--I don't know why _walnut_ particularly--it melts the leather +and then you are all right." + +Miss Toller thought this information a trifle indelicate, but made no +comment on it, except the tacit one of leaving her oysters untasted. + +"Been to any plays lately?" inquired Dizzy. + +"No," said Miss Toller, "my father doesn't approve of theatres." + +"Doesn't he?" said Dizzy. "Quite right too. I'm sure the nonsense +that's put on the stage now and called a play is enough to make you +ill. And then they talk about dramatic art! Why, there's more art in +a Punch and Judy show. Lucius and I have been going the rounds for the +last week, and I'm hanged if I want to go and see another play till I'm +seventy. Louie Freer's the only artist among the whole lot of 'em. +Ever heard her sing 'Mary Jane's Top Note'? Oh, no, I forgot. You +don't care for theatres. But you should have seen Lucius at the A.D.C. +He was only a maid-servant--but _such_ a maid-servant. He had letters +from all the Registry Offices in Cambridge offering him situations. +Every Sunday out and as many followers as he liked. Didn't you, +Lucius?" + +"He's talking nonsense, Nesta," said Lucius. "He always will talk +whether he's got anything to say or not." + +"But did you dress up as a maid-servant, Lucius?" asked the girl. + +"He did," said Dizzy, "and his waist was twenty-two inches round. His +name was Mary." But here Mr. Stubbs's attention was demanded by his +other neighbour, Mrs. Toller, who had learnt enough of Mr. Binney's +late doings to satisfy her for the present, and had caught a few scraps +of the conversation addressed to her daughter, and thought it a trifle +free. + +"And what may you be going to do, Mr. Stubbs, when you leave college?" +she asked with a slight touch of asperity. + +"Well, 'pon my word, I don't know," replied Dizzy, who may have been a +little surprised at the directness of the inquiry, but didn't show it. +"I leave all that sort of thing to my old father, you know. He's got +plenty of ideas on the subject, but he changes 'em about once a month. +I fall in with 'em all and give 'em up directly the new one comes +along. It keeps him out of mischief, having something to think about, +and it don't hurt me. I think it's the Church just at present--or is +it brewing? No, brewing was last term. My old father read in the +papers that the country spends more money on its drink bills than on +anything else, so he thought that if I was put in a position to enable +me to receipt a few of 'em, it wouldn't be a bad thing. However, he +gave up the idea for some reason or other, and now we're turning our +attention to the Church." + +"And do you feel that you have any vocation for the ministry?" asked +Mrs. Toller. + +"Oh! I shall rub along all right," said Dizzy. "I've an old uncle +who's got several livings in his gift. He'll give me one if I want it, +I dare say. There's one up in Lincolnshire,--not much money, but a +nice house, and five hundred acres of rough shooting--you don't often +get that sort of thing with a rectory nowadays--and only about fifty +people in the parish. I shouldn't mind going there, and I dare say I +could if I wanted to. My old uncle's place is in the next parish, and +I could have a very good time." + +Mrs. Toller listened with inward disapproval, but the mention of +Dizzy's uncle with his patronage and his "place" disarmed her rancour, +she being as arrant a snob as ever walked, and she said with much +sweetness: + +"Don't you think, Mr. Stubbs, that the system of patronage adopted by +the Established Church is a little--what shall I say?--a little--" + +"I _do_," said Dizzy with warmth. "I quite agree with you. I think +it's perfectly monstrous. Now, look at my old uncle--well, perhaps I +oughtn't to let out family secrets--but I assure _you_ that for that +old man to be able to present people to livings--though, mind you, he's +a very nice old man, and I've nothing to say against him--well, upon my +word, it's enough to make you turn Particular Baptist or +something--never quite know why Baptists should be more particular than +anybody else---oh, I _beg_ your pardon, Mrs. Toller--'pon my word I +forgot we weren't of the same way of thinking--clumsy beggar, always +putting my foot in it--but you're not what they call a _Particular_ +Baptist, are you?" + +"Certainly not," said Mrs. Toller. "The Particular Baptists were----" + +"Quite so. Yes, I remember. And I know, of course, that Dr. Toller is +a most distinguished leader of religious thought--_everybody_ knows +that. I ought to have remembered that he didn't happen to belong to +the same Church as I do--stupid of me. But, you know, the truth of it +is, Mrs. Toller, that when a man gets up to the top of the tree, well, +he may be Archbishop of Canterbury, or a Cardinal or--or a man like +your husband, and to a fellow like me who don't follow these things +very closely, well, there isn't much difference, don't you know." + +"You feel that, do you?" said Mrs. Toller, much gratified. "Of course +_we_ think so; but church people are usually so bigoted. I'm sure it's +a great pleasure to meet a member of the Establishment who is so +broad-minded." + +Dizzy felt that he had completely retrieved his error, and proceeded to +amplify his ideas. + +"I think it's such rot being narrow-minded, don't you know," he said. +"Look at the Buddhists. They're just as good as we are. I knew a +fellow once who became one. He was fond of a good glass of wine. He +had to knock _that_ off, and become a teetotaller. He liked shooting, +but he had to give it up, because he said he couldn't take life--he +never had taken much before, but he used to hit 'em sometimes by +mistake, and he didn't want to run any risks. Of course, he didn't eat +meat. Then he hadn't been married very long, and there was a baby he +was very fond of. He began to bring that up as a Buddhist too, and fed +it on apples and filbert nuts. Don't know what his wife was doing all +the time, but it died in a month. _He_ didn't care. He just went on. +Now, that's what I call religion, you know, and I should admire that +fellow just as much if he were a Mormon or whatever he was. Wouldn't +you?" + +Mrs. Toller was not prepared to go quite so far as that, but she went +part of the way, and went very amiably. + +"I suppose you have never heard my husband preach, have you, Mr. +Stubbs?" she asked. + +"No, I haven't," said Dizzy. "And it's a funny thing, because I've +been in London a good deal. It's the people who come up from the +country who see and hear everything that's going on. Now, you wouldn't +credit it, but I've actually never been to the Zoo." + +Mrs. Toller did not quite see the connection of ideas, but her +amiability did not decrease. + +"He preached a very fine sermon last Sunday," she said, "on 'The +Municipal Duties of an Enlightened Electorate.' The papers were full +of it. The _Daily Chronicle_ said it was 'an epoch-making sermon.'" + +"I can quite believe that," said Dizzy. "If a man talks sense in the +pulpit people will listen to him. If he talks nonsense they won't." + +"That is so true," said Mrs. Toller, and felt quite sorry when the time +came for the ladies to leave the table, for Dizzy had by this time +completely wiped out the memory of his little slip. + +Driving home after the entertainment was over Mrs. Toller laid down the +law. + +"Mr. Binney seems to have been behaving very foolishly at Cambridge," +she said. "I gathered something of the sort from Mrs. Higginbotham, +and wished to find out if it was true. I could see that she was +ashamed of the nonsense he talked at dinner, and I felt for her, poor +thing. I shall go and see her to-morrow and tell her so. The way Miss +Tupper egged him on was disgraceful. She ought to be ashamed of +herself, at her age, too. If I were you, I should allude to it in your +prayer on Sunday, Samuel. It will not seem so pointed as if you were +to do it in the sermon, and there is never any telling what Miss Tupper +may do. She might leave the chapel altogether if she is offended, and +if she once took to going to church she'd give herself such airs that +there'd be no holding her." + +"I think Mr. Binney is a very silly little man," said Miss Toller +vindictively. "I believe he is making poor Lucius miserable." + +"Nesta!" exclaimed Mrs. Toller, astonished at this outburst from her +usually submissive daughter, "I cannot allow you to speak like that of +your elders. Mr. Binney is one of your father's greatest supporters. +Pray express yourself with more respect. And as for Lucius--I've no +patience with him. I've gone out of my way to be kind to that boy, and +he shows no more gratitude than if I was a mere nobody--hardly troubled +himself to answer when I asked him how he was getting on with his +studies, and actually turned his back upon me when I began to give him +a little advice about the temptations of University life. Now if he +were like that nice young Mr. Stubbs it would be different. Stubbs is +not a genteel name, but I believe he is very well connected, and he +certainly has a well-bred manner of speaking. Samuel, I have asked him +to come with us and hear you preach on Sunday evening. He said nothing +would please him better. He has never been in a Nonconformist place of +worship, and he will certainly come if he is still in town. I should +be careful what I said about the Establishment if I were you. I should +like him to carry away a good impression of your preaching." + +"I'll be sure and remember it, my dear," said Dr. Toller drowsily from +his corner of the carriage. "Nesta, dear, write a note for me when we +get home--'Mr. Stubbs--no rubs.' Then I shan't disgrace myself." The +Reverend Dr. Toller cultivated his small gift of humour; he found it +necessary in order to live comfortably with his wife. + +Dizzy took his departure the next morning, but not before a very +painful scene had occurred in Russell Square. The _Times_ which graced +Mr. Binney's breakfast table, and was now eagerly searched each morning +for news of the Little-go examination, at last published the list. Mr. +Binney's name was not in it. + +Dizzy came down to find a dejected figure sitting at the head of the +table, while the disregarded urn which had filled the teapot and +flooded the tea-tray was beginning to flow over the surrounding tract +of tablecloth. As he entered the room Mr. Binney bounded from his seat +with a yell of pain, and turned off the tap. The physical anguish of +the moment diverted his mind from the mental shock he had undergone, +but the numbing realisation of failure soon settled on him again. +"Stubbs!" he said mournfully, "it is all over. I shall never hold up +my head again." + +"Lor, Mr. Binney!" exclaimed Dizzy. "It can't be so bad as that, is +it? Shall I ring for a servant to bring a cloth and mop it up?" + +"It isn't that," said Mr. Binney, with the calm born of despair. "I +have failed to pass the Previous examination. I am a disgraced man." + +"Oh, that's all, is it?" said Dizzy, helping himself to devilled +kidneys off the side table. "I thought you'd scalded yourself. Why, +bless my soul, I knew a fellow who had eight shots at the Little-go and +didn't pass it then. I had three goes myself, and here I am as merry +as a cricket." + +"Ah, you are young!" said Mr. Binney. "You've got your life before +you. I shall never get over it." + +Nevertheless he did get over it, and the failure did him good. He went +to Mrs. Higginbotham and confessed all. He saw now, he said, that he +had wasted his time and opportunities. He had consorted with idle and +graceless companions, and made himself a reproach to the authorities of +the college. He had brought this appalling result on himself, and he +deserved it. + +Mrs. Higginbotham gave the repentant prodigal full absolution. She +advised him to write to Mr. Rimington, and promise full amendment of +his ways. Mr. Binney did not take her advice in this particular, but +he did summon to his aid the learned Minshull, and set himself steadily +to read for several hours a day during the Christmas vacation in order +to make up for lost time. Lucius found the house very dull. An +unexpected invitation from his cousin John Jermyn's mother came for him +to spend the week after Christmas at the Norfolk Rectory, but +remembering his cousin John he did not feel attracted, and receiving +another invitation the day after to the ancestral home of the Stubbses +he accepted that, and refused the other. He went up to Cambridge +early, for there was a chance of his rowing in the University boat, and +he wanted to keep a term before going to Putney, if he should be +fortunate enough to be wanted there; so he saw next to nothing of his +father for the remainder of the vacation. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"THE NEW COURT CHRONICLE" + +Mr. Binney embarked on his second term at Cambridge with the full +intention of acquitting himself with credit and freeing his character +from the suspicion of unruliness which had unfortunately become +attached to it. He was very much in earnest about his work, and mapped +out a course of arduous study which was to be continued right up to the +following June, when he hoped to make up for his first failure by +taking a high class in both parts of the Little-go. The Union he was +determined to let severely alone. His pride had had a severe rebuff +from the indignity which had been put upon him in the elections. "They +can do without _me_," said Mr. Binney to his fellow-aspirant, M'Gee. +"Very well, then, I will show them that I can do without _them_." + +"Toch! man, have another try," said the indomitable M'Gee. "Rome +wasn't built in a day." But he said it without enthusiasm, for the +path to success, according to his ideas, did not lie through the +follies and extravagances to which Mr. Binney had treated his audience +during the previous term. + +"I shall never speak at the Union again, M'Gee," said Mr. Binney +firmly. And he kept his word. + +He was a little troubled as to what course he should adopt with Howden +and the rest of his athletic friends. He did not want to drop them +altogether, but he wanted to make it clearly understood that the open +restaurant which he had previously conducted for their benefit was now +closed, and he had a suspicion that its closing might mean the +discontinuance of their favour, and a consequent loss of prestige to +himself. He gave a dinner on the second evening of the term, or +perhaps it would be more correct to say that Howden, who professed +himself delighted to meet his old friend once more after five weeks' +absence, gave it for him in his rooms, and Mr. Binney paid the bill. +It was quite as noisy as any that had gone before it, but Mr. Binney +did not add to the gaiety. He made a speech in the course of the +evening--he was rather fond of making speeches--in which he informed +his friends that he was about to embark on a severe course of study and +found he would not be able to have the pleasure of entertaining them +quite so often as before on account of the time that was thrown away +over these festivities. What he said was cheered to the echo, which +gratified him not a little, but Howden, who followed him, did not +appear to have taken his remarks in the least seriously, and assured +him in a voice broken with emotion, that they would all stick by him +and never forsake him. This was not quite what Mr. Binney wanted, but +Howden's affecting periods caused such an outburst of enthusiasm that +he succumbed to the general goodwill and allowed the matter to stand +over for the present. + +On the next afternoon, however, it was decided for him. He was sitting +over his books for an hour before hall when he received a call from +Mirrilees, the Captain of the First Trinity Boat Club. Mirrilees was +an acquaintance of whom Mr. Binney might reasonably have been proud if +he had ever shown the slightest wish to have anything to do with our +hero apart from his official position as captain of the boat club to +which Mr. Binney belonged. He was tall and well set up, a really fine +oar and a thoroughly good fellow in the best sense of that misused +term. He was not everybody's friend, even in the exceedingly tolerant +atmosphere of undergraduate Cambridge, and athletes of the type of +Howden disliked him, and said so freely; but Mr. Binney had kept his +own opinion on this point, and if there was one man in Cambridge whom +he respected with all the force of the hero-worship which was a part of +his still undeveloped character, it was Mirrilees. He therefore rose +to his feet, and showed by his nervousness of manner that he fully +appreciated the honour done to him. + +Mirrilees sat down on the sofa and refused the proffered suggestion of +refreshment. His keen eyes glanced round the room and then rested on +Mr. Binney. + +"I told you last term," he said, "that we might want you to steer the +first Lent boat. You're a light weight and you've got a head on your +shoulders. At least you haven't lost it yet on the river, although you +seem to have done so occasionally elsewhere." + +What Mr. Binney suffered at that instant in the way of remorse is +beyond description. This was a very different thing to Mr. Rimington's +strictures on his conduct. He made no reply, but hung his head. + +"Now I've come to offer you the place----" Mr. Binney revived a +little--"but on certain conditions. I am not going to have the cox of +any boat I've got anything to do with making himself more ridiculous +than he is by nature. We shall be laughed at, of course, for having a +man of your age in the boats at all. I don't mind that as long as +that's all there is to laugh at. What I'm not going to stand is your +making yourself the butt and crony of every drunken rowdy in Cambridge. +I say what I've got to say perfectly straight as captain of the club to +one of its members who may turn out useful to it. If you lay it to +heart and don't take offence I shall have done what I wanted to do. If +you don't like such plain speaking, say so, and I'll clear out, and we +need never speak to one another again." + +Mr. Binney's choler had shown signs of rising during this very plain +and unvarnished statement of the light in which Mirrilees regarded him, +but the hint with which the address had closed brought it down again. + +"I don't take offence," he said slowly, "though I'm not used to--to----" + +"Well, perhaps I put it a bit too strong," said Mirrilees, "but if I +were you I shouldn't have anything more to do with Howden and that lot. +I hear that they were all here last night again as usual, and that's +why I'm talking to you now. They're only sponging on you and making +you appear a fool all the time. If you steer the first Lent boat this +term--and mind, though I make no promises, that's intended to mean the +first May boat _next_ term--you'll have to train with the rest, and +that will mean knocking off all these diversions; and you'll find +plenty of good chaps in the boat club without running after +footballers, amongst whom you can't exactly expect to shine." + +"I'm very grateful to you, Mirrilees, for your kind advice," said Mr. +Binney. "I shall certainly take it, and you may rely upon me to do my +best for the honour of the club." + +"That's all right then," said Mirrilees, rising. "Walters is captain +of your boat, as you know, but I thought I'd just come round and settle +things up. Good-night!" + +Outside in the darkness of Jesus Lane, Mirrilees smiled continuously. +"Good Lord!" he said to himself. "Fancy talking like that to the +father of one of your pals! But it was the only way, and I thought +he'd stand it somehow. I rather fancy I've done Lucy a good turn. But +I hope he'll never know." + +He left Mr. Binney in a fervour of amended ambitions. What a grand +thing it would be to have a friend like Mirrilees, a man whom most +people turned round to look at if they passed him in the street, a man +who had already rowed two years in the University boat and would +probably row two years more before he left Cambridge, a man whose name +was known all over England. Why, it was almost as good as knowing +Muttlebury or Guy Nickalls. Lucius knew him, of course, lucky young +beggar. He wondered whether it was worth while making another attempt +to make acquaintances through his son, but the memory of Blathgowrie +and others deterred him, for Lucius's friends were not all Mirrilees's, +and he made up his mind to deserve the great man's favour by a +brilliant career as a cox, and extreme carefulness as to his behaviour +both on the river and away from it. + +And so for the best part of that term Mr. Binney's behaviour was +irreproachable. He never missed a lecture or an appointment with his +Coach, and the amount of work he got through in the privacy of his +rooms was little short of marvellous. He was on the river, of course, +every afternoon, and suffered greatly from the exposure to the cold as +he sat in his narrow seat, fumbling with numbed hands at the rudder +lines, and was carried swiftly along by the combined exertions of the +eight stalwart men who faced him. His appearance always caused some +merriment on the tow-path, and the town urchins were a great trial to +him with their coarse banter, but the men of the First Trinity Boat +Club, as a rule, treated him with the respect due to his years, and, if +they did show a slight disinclination to walk up from the boats with +him, or to admit him into very close intimacy with them, he made up his +mind to bear the deprivation, trusting that it would disappear in time, +rather than fall again into the mistake he had made in trying to force +himself upon Blathgowrie and his friends. As for Howden, there was not +so much trouble with him as Mr. Binney had expected. For one thing, he +played Rugby football regularly for the University, and, although no +such arduous course of training is expected from a football player as +is necessary in the case of an oarsman, still a continuous course of +hilarious dinners is not regarded with favour by those in authority, +and Howden did not apply so often as before for sustenance at Mr. +Binney's table. Mr. Binney also conceived the idea of employing Howden +himself to keep his friends off him. He got him to talk about his +financial troubles one morning, a subject which he had before +instinctively avoided. Howden was nothing loth, and poured out a +dismal tale of debts and duns. Mr. Binney then afforded him temporary +pecuniary relief, and asked, as a favour, that Howden should inform his +friends that he, Mr. Binney, was very busy this term and would not be +able to see quite so much of them as before. Howden accepted the +responsibility, and discharged it satisfactorily, and Mr. Binney was +left in peace to carry out his reformation. + +But, alas! the old proverb still holds true: "Give a dog a bad name and +hang him." Mr. Binney was now an exemplary character, but nobody would +believe it. When his guests left his rooms after the evening already +alluded to, they got into trouble with the Proctors. It was the usual +offence of smoking in cap and gown, but Howden added to it by running +away from avenging justice. Neither Proctor nor Bull-dogs could hope +to equal him at that game, so they made no attempt to enter into +competition, but entered up his name, which was perfectly familiar to +all three of them, instead. So the only thing Howden got by his little +sprint was the exercise, which he did not require, and a double fine +the next morning, which he could ill afford to pay. His escapade also +came to the ears of his tutor, Mr. Rimington. He would not have taken +notice of such a comparatively slight offence, if such offences had not +been of frequent occurrence with Howden. As it was, he sent for him +and talked to him, and then it came out that Howden had been dining +with Mr. Binney. It will be remembered that Mr. Rimington had +expostulated with Mr. Binney on the last day of the previous term, and +this occurrence had taken place on the second day of the present term. +Mr. Rimington may therefore be excused for coming to the conclusion +that his expostulations had had very little effect, and that Mr. Binney +was proceeding on the reckless career which had made him such a +nuisance to those responsible for the order of the college. He said +nothing on this occasion, but continued to regard Mr. Binney with +feelings of strong disfavour. + +Mr. Binney might have lived down his reputation in time had it not been +artificially sustained for him by the journal to which we have already +referred, the _New Court Chronicle_. The editor of that enterprising +publication had found that Mr. Binney's eccentricities made very good +copy for him in the previous term, and confidently looked forward to +keeping up his circulation by exploiting our hero to a considerable +extent as long as his paper should continue to run. He had had an +altercation with Lucius one night in the Great Court upon one of those +occasions when two factions meet and mutually disagree, and although, +or probably because, he had been in the wrong, the editor of the _New +Court Chronicle_ bore Lucius a grudge and was not above paying it off +by ridiculing his father. He had also been one of the band whom Howden +had frequently invited to partake of Mr. Binney's hospitality, with +which he had made so free that Mr. Binney had decided that in his case +at least he would give the cold shoulder himself and not entrust the +work entirely to Howden. The journalistic gentleman had not taken this +very kindly, and a flavour of malice had crept into his witticisms, +where before there had only been good-humoured chaff. As Mr. Binney +gave him very little occasion now for humorous writing, he allowed +himself a freer hand, and invented stories against him instead of +merely repeating them. + +In order to provide a fitting framework for his humour, he published +each week a correspondence between Mr. Binney in Cambridge and an +imaginary mother in London, in which the former recounted his exploits, +and the latter commented upon them. The idea was carried out with some +humour and proved to be an acceptable feature of the paper. +Unfortunately the editor had hit upon the name of "Martha" for Mr. +Binney's supposed mother, and her letters were not so unlike Mrs. +Higginbotham's in style as quite to relieve Mr. Binney of the suspicion +that the story of his wooing of that good woman had reached Cambridge. +The only two people who could possibly be suspected of divulging it +were Lucius and Dizzy, and after the issue of the first instalment he +went angrily round to his son's rooms to see if the offence could be +brought home to him. Lucius was out, but seated comfortably in his +armchair and smoking one of his cigars was Dizzy, who must have been +the culprit, if Lucius were not, thought Mr. Binney. + +"Ah, Mr. Binney, pleased to see you again," said Dizzy genially. "How +are you feeling! Pretty toll-lollish?" + +"No, Stubbs, I am not feeling particularly 'toll-lollish' just at +present--I thank you all the same," said Mr. Binney severely. "I don't +know whether this publication has come to your notice yet?" Mr. Binney +put a copy of the _New Court Chronicle_ on the table, which Dizzy took +up and glanced through with interest. + +"It ain't bad," he said, "though it's got up by a set of rotters. +Hullo, what's this--something about you, Mr. Binney, eh?" + +"Yes, sir," said Mr. Binney angrily, "and a most scurrilous piece of +work it is. My dear mother, sir, has lain in her grave these twenty +years. It is a scandalous thing that contempt should be poured on her +memory in this indecent fashion." + +"It is," said Dizzy warmly. "A most preposterous thing! I quite agree +with you. These fellows ought to be kicked, every one of them. And if +they treated my old mater in that way I'd--I'd pay somebody to do it." + +"But that is not all, sir," continued Mr. Binney. "I don't know +whether you recollect meeting a lady of the name of Higginbotham at my +table?" + +"Mrs. Higginbotham!" exclaimed Dizzy. "Why, of course I do. And a +most engaging old lady she was too. Don't know when I've met a nicer." + +"I'm obliged for your good opinion sir," said Mr. Binney stiffly, +"although I confess the idea of Mrs. Higginbotham as an _old_ lady is a +new one to me. You are probably aware that her Christian name is +Martha." + +"First I've heard of it," said Dizzy, "but it's an excellent name. I +had an old aunt called Martha, and I thought she was going to leave me +a lot of money; but she didn't." + +"You are _sure_ that you didn't know that Mrs. Higginbotham's name was +Martha?" asked Mr. Binney suspiciously. + +"'Pon my word I hadn't the slightest idea of it, Mr. Binney," said +Dizzy. "I shouldn't have had a word to say if you'd told me it was +Mary. But why do you ask?" + +"Never mind," said Mr. Binney. "If you give me your word of honour as +a gentleman that the fact is new to you, I accept your assurance, and +there let the matter end. Here is Lucius. I should like to have a +word alone with him, if you will permit me, Stubbs." + +"Certainly," said the obliging Dizzy, rising instantly. "Come round +and give me a look in presently, Lucy. I'll take another of those +weeds of yours if I may." + +When he had got outside, Mr. Binney turned to his son, with, "Now, sir, +what is the meaning of this?" + +Lucius glanced at the paper to which his father pointed. + +"Oh, I've read the rubbish," he said wearily. "It makes me sick." + +"Read it," said Mr. Binney. "Yes, I've no doubt you've read it, sir. +What I should like to know is how much you wrote of it." + +"I don't know what you mean," said Lucius. "I've had quite enough mud +thrown at me since you've been up here, father. It isn't likely I +should take to throwing it at myself." + +"Don't prevaricate, sir," said Mr. Binney, his voice rising. "Did you +write it, or did you not?" + +"I'm not going to answer such a ridiculous question," said Lucius +sulkily. + +"Then I will answer it for you," said Mr. Binney. "You _did_ write it. +I know you have always nourished evil feelings against that excellent +woman Martha Higginbotham, who I hope will one day do you the honour of +becoming your mother. Not content with wreaking your unfilial spite +against your own father who begat you, you must smirch the good name of +a lady who has always loaded you with kindness. Out upon such conduct, +I say." + +Lucius held his head in his hands. "I suppose I shall understand it +all soon," he said. "At present it sounds like one of Dr. Toller's +sermons. Is there anything about you and Mrs. Higginbotham in the +advertisements, father? I've read all the rest of the rag and I don't +remember her name being mentioned." + +"What is that name, sir?" asked Mr. Binney, pointing to the signature +of his imaginary mother's letters. + +"Martha Binney," read Lucius. + +"Yes, Martha Binney," echoed his father. "And in two years and a half +from now, Martha Higginbotham will change her name for Martha Binney, +if we're both spared." + +"It'll be a change for the better then, as far as she's concerned," +said Lucius. "But what _are_ you driving at, father? You can't really +think I wrote that or had anything to do with it. I'm not such a scug +as all that." + +"And pray who else up here but you knows that Mrs. Higginbotham's name +is Martha?" inquired Mr. Binney. "That's my point." + +"Well, I don't think it's much of a point," said Lucius. "It's a +fluke, their happening to hit upon that name. But, look here, can't +you stop this sort of thing? It's really awful the way things are +going on. I don't suppose there's anybody ever been up here who's had +such a miserable time as I'm having. Other fellows respect their +fathers. You simply don't give me a chance." + +This touched Mr. Binney to the quick. He was very susceptible to +criticism since Mirrilees had spoken to him so plainly. "I'm afraid I +have given you some reason to say that, my boy," he said. "I--I was +led away last term. I was under a wrong impression of what was the +thing and what wasn't the thing. But that is all changed now. I have +become a reading man and a boating man. I have turned the page on +everything else." + +"There was that dinner with Howden and the rest of them the very night +after we came up," said Lucius. + +"It was the last dinner that Howden will get out of me," said Mr. +Binney. "I have done with him--at least I hope so." + +"Well, then, there's some hope," said Lucius. "And, look here, father, +if you've really given up that sort of thing there's a much better +chance of your getting on with the fellows worth knowing. I shouldn't +take any notice of that business, if I were you. It will die down in +time. Would you care to come to lunch to-morrow? Mirrilees is coming. +He's a good chap, you'll like to meet him." + +"Oh, I know him well. He was in my rooms a few days ago," said Mr. +Binney. "But I should like to meet him again very much. Yes, I'll +come, Lucius," and Mr. Binney went away feeling that the reward of good +behaviour had already come, in spite of the _New Court Chronicle_. + +But, alas! Mr. Binney's reputation proved harder matter to live down +than he had anticipated. The men whom he met on the river fought +rather shy of him, for to tell the truth, there was very little to +recommend the poor little gentleman as a companion for youth if he was +to be taken seriously as he now seemed to desire. Howden and Co. had +only put up with him because of his dinners, and because, at the time +he had consorted with them, he had apparently not objected to being +made the butt of their not over-refined pleasantries. He now led a +very dull and dejected life, but his work kept him employed, and the +prospects of his boat in the Lent races gave him something to look +forward to with keen expectation. The First Trinity first Lent boat +had fallen to the fourth place on the river, but this year it was by +far the best crew practising, with the possible exception of the head +boat. It was expected to make its first three bumps with comparative +ease, and to row an exciting race with Trinity Hall in the last night +of the races for the head place on the river. Whenever Mr. Binney felt +inclined to get down-hearted at the thought of his unpopularity he +would buoy himself up with the anticipation of the glory that would +accrue to him if his hopes were realised. + +Unfortunately the editor of the _New Court Chronicle_ found his +journalistic ingenuity increasing with practice, and spent such pains +over "The Binney Correspondence," that that feature of his paper soon +became the talk of Cambridge. After the third number Mr. Binney wrote +him a letter of expostulation, which he published with appropriate +comment, but of which he took no further notice. That week's +instalment of the Correspondence contained an account from "Your +repentant son, Peter Binney," of how he had been asked to dine with the +Vice-Chancellor, had disgraced himself by drinking too much wine, and +had been escorted home by the two Esquire Bedells with their silver +pokers, while he raised the town with a spirited rendering of "Rule +Britannia." Mrs. Binney, the mother, expressed herself heart-broken at +the news, and announced her intention of coming up to Cambridge to +implore the Vice-Chancellor to overlook the offence, and give her +erring boy another chance. She also alluded to her grand-daughter +Lucy, who was supposed to be studying at Girton College. "She is a +good girl," wrote the old lady, "and would be ashamed to carry on in +the way you do, Peter, but the dear child tells me she wishes she had +been sent to Newnham College. She likes the students there so much +better." + +Poor little Mr. Binney went round to his son's rooms almost in tears. +He found Lucius still more angry than himself, for, although his +admiration of the Newnham girl was well known among his immediate +friends, and he did not take a mild degree of chaff on the subject at +all ill, the vulgar publicity now given to it goaded him to the verge +of desperation. + +"Oh, it's you, father," he said. "I'm going round to that fellow Piper +to tell him if this business isn't stopped I'll knock his teeth down +his throat." + +"Ah, Lucius," said Mr. Binney plaintively. "I wish I was big and +strong like you. I'd have done that long ago. But you're a good boy +to stick up for your poor father. I'm going to increase your allowance +by £10 for asking me to lunch to meet Mirrilees, and if you get these +disgraceful attacks stopped I'll add another £20. You'll get back to +the old figure if you're careful, and even beyond it." + +"Thanks, father," said Lucius, "but I don't want paying for doing a +thing like that. I've got a little score of my own against Mr. Piper, +and I'm going to pay it off now." And Lucius took up his cap and left +the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"PUT HIM IN THE FOUNTAIN" + +Mr. Binney had wished he was big and strong like his son. As a matter +of fact Lucius was quite a light weight, and although wiry and in good +condition, it was certain that he was quite incapable of fulfilling his +threat of knocking Piper's teeth down his throat, unless Piper allowed +him to do so without making any resistance, which was unlikely. Piper +was a great heavy lump of bone and muscle, over six feet high, and +quite as fit as Lucius, for the latter had been finally rejected for +the University boat, for this year at least, and had gone out of +training, while Piper was still playing football. These considerations +did occur to Lucius as he walked from his own rooms to those where +Piper carried on his editorial functions, but he was so angry that they +carried little weight with them. In the New Court he met Dizzy. + +"Come up here with me," he said. "I've got a little job on." + +Dizzy followed him up the staircase to Piper's rooms, talking volubly, +as was his wont; but Lucius gave him no answer. + +Piper was discovered sitting at his table talking to Howden, who stood +with his back to the mantel-piece. + +Lucius plunged into his business without any preface. + +"Look here, sir," he said, "I've come about this stuff you've been +printing about me and my father. I'll trouble you to stop it, if you +don't mind." + +Piper's face darkened. He was a bad-tempered man. He was also a +clever man, and having no reason to be alarmed at any possible violence +on Lucius's part, which he would rather have welcomed than otherwise, +he thought he might as well draw him into a battle of words and afford +his intellect some little amusement. So he choked down his temper and +said quietly: + +"You are Mr. Binney, junior, I believe. You are not mentioned from one +end of the paper to the other, except as having had the chuck from the +'Varsity boat, and I don't see you've any reason to complain of that." + +"That's a lie," said Lucius instantly. Piper started from his chair, +but sat down again and waited. "You know perfectly well," continued +Lucius hotly, "that that rot about Lucy and Girton is meant for me, and +even if it wasn't I object to your making fun of my father." + +This was what Piper wanted. "Is the other Binney your father?" he said +with a sneer. "I didn't know it. If I had a father like that I'd +drown him." + +Lucius made a dash forward, and Piper stood up with an evil smile on +his face. But Stubbs caught hold of his friend and pulled him back, +and Howden stepped forward. + +"Oh, come now, Pips!" expostulated he, "don't overdo it, old man." + +But Piper took no notice. He suddenly lost all control over his temper. + +"What the devil do you mean by coming blustering here?" he shouted. +"Get out of my rooms this minute or I'll throw you out of the window. +Yes, you'd better keep him back, you putty-faced swab"--this to +Dizzy--"if he comes near me I'll put some marks on him that he won't +lose in a hurry." + +Lucius shook off Dizzy's encircling grasp. + +"Will you stop printing lies about me and my father?" he said. + +"I won't stop anything," rejoined Piper. + +"Then will you fight?" + +"Fight! By G--, yes. Take off your coat and try." + +Howden and Stubbs both tried to stop them, but they might as well have +tried to stop the tide rising. They were shaken off impatiently. +Piper pushed the table and sofa aside, and in less than three minutes +after Lucius had entered the room they were at it hammer and tongs. + +There was not much science displayed. The room was too small, for one +thing, and there was a good deal of damage done to furniture and +breakables before it was all over. If Lucius had kept cool he might +have made up in some measure for the great disparity in weight between +them, for he knew just a little more of the game than Piper; but both +of them were blind with rage, and it was attack on both sides, with +very little defence, as long as it lasted. + +It did not last long. Lucius fought as long as he could stand, but his +blows got weaker and weaker, while Piper got in again and again with as +much force as at first. At last he knocked Lucius clean through the +glass doors of a cupboard which held his stock of crockery, and he fell +heavily on to the floor, and lay there insensible, with the blood +pouring from his head. Piper had not had enough even to cool his +passion. "Get a towel and water from the bedroom," he said to Dizzy, +who was kneeling by the side of his friend. "And take him out of this +as soon as you can. I'm not going to stay in the same room with him." +And he put on his coat and went out of the room. + +Howden stayed behind and helped to restore Lucius to consciousness. +"It's rot his tackling a chap like Pips," he said; "he's not in the +same class with him, and he's a demon when he's roused. I wouldn't +care to take him on myself." + +"He's a d--d cad," said Dizzy, in deep concern, "and I don't care if he +hears me say so." + +This was the only conversation that passed between them till Lucius +came round. Then they both helped him across to his own rooms in +Whewell's Court, which they reached with some difficulty, as Lucius was +dazed, and as weak as a kitten. Here the drama changed from tragedy to +farce, for Mr. Binney was waiting for them, and as soon as he saw the +state to which Lucius had been reduced he made such lamentations that +neither Dizzy nor Howden could help laughing. + +"Oh, chuck it, Binney," said Howden. "He'll be all right when he gets +to bed." + +"Go out and get a doctor, Mr. Binney," said Dizzy. "He's cut his head +with some broken glass, and we can't stop the bleeding." + +Mr. Binney dashed out instantly in a frenzy of terror, and Howden and +Dizzy helped Lucius off with his clothes and into bed, where he lay +silent with his face to the wall, while the blood slowly oozed out from +under the bandages on his head and soaked into his pillow. The two +stood looking at him irresolutely. + +"I'm all right now," said Lucius faintly, "you needn't wait." They +went into the sitting-room. + +"Look here, sir," said Dizzy. "You must stop this business. It's gone +quite far enough." + +"My dear fellow," said Howden, "I didn't have anything to do with it. +I told Piper he ought to stop it when Binney wrote to object, +because--well, because Binney ain't a bad old chap after all, and it's +rough on him. But he wouldn't, and it isn't likely he'll stop now, +after this." + +"Well, if he won't stop it of his own accord, he'll have to be made +to," said Dizzy. + +"I don't know who's going to make him," said Howden. + +"Oh, I think we can manage that," said Dizzy. + +Mr. Binney came back with a doctor, who patched up Lucius's damaged +head and told him to keep in bed until he should come again on the next +day. Mr. Binney kept fussing about the room wringing his hands over +the trouble that he had caused, and bewailing the smallness of his +stature which debarred him from visiting summary justice upon Piper for +the way he had treated his son. He was a ridiculous little object in +his grief, and his behaviour was not soothing to the nerves of a sick +man. + +"Do get him away," whispered Lucius to Dizzy. "I want to go to sleep;" +and the latter, by the exercise of infinite tact, managed to remove Mr. +Binney from the premises. A short time afterwards, having seen that +Lucius was comfortably settled, he removed himself, and then set to +work to lay plans to circumvent Piper and cause the downfall of the +_New Court Chronicle_. First of all he went round to the rooms of an +influential member of the Third Trinity Boat Club, a man named Tait, +who was rowing "Seven" in the University boat. He found him at home, +and with him were Mirrilees, two other members of the University crew, +and our old acquaintance Blathgowrie. To them he confided his story, +which was received with interest and indignation, for Lucius was a +popular member of the boating set, between which and the clique +represented by Howden and Piper there happened to be a certain amount +of bad blood at that particular time. + +"It's all the fault of that confounded little bantam," said +Blathgowrie, when Dizzy's tale had come to an end. "It's jolly good of +Lucy to fight his battles for him after the way he's treated him. I'm +hanged if I would." + +"Those letters are the best thing in Piper's scurrilous rag," said +Tait. "It's a pity to stop them, but if Lucy objects--and I expect it +was more on his own account than his governor's--I think it's about +time the paper was suppressed. I've a good mind to take Mr. Piper on +myself." + +"You can't do that," said Mirrilees quickly. "You might manage to lick +him, but even that is doubtful, and he'd damage you so that you +wouldn't be able to row for a day or two. Besides, if you licked him +once a week from now till the end of the term he wouldn't stop the +paper. He's not that sort." + +"It's got to be stopped somehow," said Dizzy. + +"Who publishes it?" asked Blathgowrie. + +"Breedon," said Tait. + +"Very well, then. We'll tell him to leave off, and if he don't we'll +boycott him. We can get everybody to go somewhere else for their +_menus_ and all those little jobs. He won't hesitate long between us +and Mr. Piper, I think." + +Blathgowrie busied himself to some purpose, and submitted to Messrs. +Breedon & Co. a considerable list of gentlemen who proposed to transfer +their valuable custom if another number of the _New Court Chronicle_ +appeared with Messrs. Breedon's name on the cover. The firm caved in +at once and intimated to the editor that he must find another +publisher. Piper made himself very objectionable, but Messrs. Breedon +& Co. were firm, and absolutely refused to bring out another number for +him. Piper had now got his back up and swore to go on publishing his +paper if he brought out every number at a loss. He found a more +obscure stationer than Messrs. Breedon & Co. who was willing to oblige +him, and went on with his editorial functions, throwing far more vigour +and malice into the next instalment of the "Binney Correspondence" than +he had done before. + +Poor Lucius lay alone that afternoon in his comfortless college +bedroom. He was very miserable. He felt weak and ill, and his +thoughts took a melancholy turn. He had done no good by his single +combat with the redoubtable Piper; in fact, things would now probably +be worse than before. He had no energy to feel angry with his father, +but he saw the whole University pointing fingers of scorn at him, an +unpleasantness which might be expected to continue and increase as long +as he remained at Cambridge. The hope which he had entertained up to a +week ago of a place in the University boat no longer buoyed him up +against adversity. In his present state of depression he saw himself +missing everything that made Cambridge interesting to him, and heartily +wished himself away from the place altogether. His thoughts, nowadays, +seldom kept long away from the girl whom he had seen for the first time +last term, but there was not much comfort to be got out of thinking +about her. He had not been so fortunate this term as to have hit upon +a lecture which she attended, and no longer had the satisfaction of +sitting in the same room with her for an hour, twice a week. He had +discovered that she went to a lecture at St. John's College, and used +to hang about outside the gates on the chance of seeing her as she went +to and fro. But there are two ways between Newnham and St. John's, one +along Trinity Street and the King's Parade, the other past the backs of +the colleges, and after a time the uncomfortable conviction took hold +of Lucius that his divinity was taking a malicious delight in dodging +him. If he waited outside the big gate of St. John's, she went home by +the backs, and if he lay in wait on the Bridge of Sighs, she would go +through the town. And upon the rare occasions when he did meet her +face to face there was no sign that she was so much as aware of his +existence. Lying on his bed, with heavy heart and throbbing head, as +the light of the short winter afternoon slowly died, poor Lucius took +the gloomiest view of his chances of ever becoming better acquainted +with her. + +Just as he had reached the lowest possible depths of depression, +Mirrilees and Tait came in to see him, and to sympathise. They told +him of Blathgowrie's strategy. They had not discovered yet that Piper +had circumvented it, and arranged to produce his paper from another +address. + +"We're going to hoot Piper in hall to-night," said Tait, "and see if we +can't bring on a scrimmage afterwards. If we do, we'll put him in the +fountain. I expect he'll oblige us. He's a pugnacious beggar." + +When they had gone, he received an unexpected visit from his cousin, +John Jermyn, who was much surprised to find him in bed, and hardly knew +how to express himself with reference to current events. In a small +way, in his own college, John Jermyn had suffered some annoyance from +his relationship to Mr. Binney, and was not particularly proud of it. +His shyness, however, prevented him from alluding to his cousin's +reputation. If he had done so, he might have discovered that Lucius, +in spite of his loyalty, was not very well pleased with his father at +that particular time. + +"My mother is coming up next week for a few days," said Jermyn, "and I +came to ask you if you would lunch with us on Tuesday. There will only +be she and my sister from Newnham. You haven't met her yet." + +"But surely, your sister is at Girton, isn't she?" said Lucius. + +"No, Newnham," said Jermyn. + +Lucius's heart suddenly lightened. Any connection with Newnham was +welcome to him, and opened up possibilities. + +"Why, I went out to Girton to call on her," said Lucius; "they said she +was out." + +"Rather lucky," said his cousin. "That's a Miss German with a G. +Well, then, you'll come on Tuesday, if you're well enough, at half-past +one." + +"Yes, I'll come," said Lucius. "Thanks very much." + +When his cousin had left him he found that his spirits had lightened +considerably. The visit of his friends had cheered him, for he had +thought that if he was to fight his father's battles for him he would +have to fight them alone, and it was pleasant to find that there were +others on his side. And the Newnham girl seemed to be nearer to him, +somehow, now he knew that she and his cousin were at the same college. +He began to build castles in the air. He knew that his cousin was in +her first year, and he thought that if his divinity had been in +Cambridge before last term, he must have noticed her; so the two were +of the same year, and probably friends. He might get to know her +through his cousin--though it was difficult to see how an introduction +could be brought about. At any rate he would be able to find out her +name, and that was something. He was rather sorry that he had refused +the invitation to the Norfolk Rectory at Christmas. He would make up +for it by cultivating his cousins now. He comforted himself with rosy +visions, and by-and-bye fell asleep. Mr. Binney came in after his +afternoon's work on the river was over, and went out again. Dizzy +crept in, looked at him, and crept away again on tiptoe. But still +Lucius slept on, and when he woke again about nine o'clock he was very +much better. + +In the meantime the ill-feeling between the boating men and the +football players, fanned by Piper's treatment of Lucius, had burnt up +to a blaze. When Piper went into hall that night, a little late, there +was a chorus of groans and hisses as he passed the table where +Mirrilees and Tait sat. He stopped for an instant, and an ugly look +came over his face. The groans grew louder, and the dons turned round +and looked down the hall from their seats at the high tables. Then +Piper went to his place, the noise ceased and the dons, reassured, +turned to their dinner. But there were ominous whisperings and glances +at the table where Piper sat, and like signs at the table of the +boating men nearer the door. The latter finished their dinner early +and went out in a body. When they had got outside the door they waited +by the college screens. Men who belonged to neither faction dropping +out of hall one by one, looked with surprise at such an unexpected +gathering, and passed on. Some of them waited outside to see what +would happen. Before very long Piper came out, immediately followed by +Howden and the rest. He looked black when he saw the waiting crowd, +and then there was a curious pause. Bodily violence between +fellow-undergraduates is a rare thing unless arising spontaneously from +chance collisions of opposing factions. In this case there was plenty +of bad feeling, but no hot blood at present, and although both sides +were eager for a quarrel, nobody quite knew how to begin it. After a +moment's pause Piper went on towards the steps leading down to +Neville's Court. He looked a very ugly customer. Although Lucius had +not succeeded in doing him a fraction of the damage which he himself +had received, Piper had not got off quite unmarked. He had a black eye +and a swollen cheek bone. His temper was up, too, and he was probably +nearer the state of mind when a fight is a relief than any one there. + +"Ugly bruiser!" remarked Tait as he passed. + +Piper faced him instantly. "What's that, sir!" he asked angrily. + +"I said you were an ugly bruiser, sir." + +Piper aimed a savage blow at him before the words were well out of his +mouth. Tait had just time to parry it. There was no need for any +further introduction. Exactly where they were, with startled waiters +going to and fro from the kitchens to the hall, and the intermittent +stream of undergraduates passing through, the two parties fell upon one +another, and the noise of the combat rose above the clatter of plates +and the muffled swinging of the heavy doors, and reached the dons on +the daïs at the other end of the hall. "Put him in the fountain," +shouted Mirrilees, and the struggling mass surged slowly out of the +doorway and down the shallow flight of steps into the Great Court. +Blood was up now and there was no lack of sincerity in the blows that +were given and taken. Little groups of disinterested spectators looked +on at the strange spectacle of men of the same college, most of them +well known throughout the University for their prowess in different +branches of sport, fighting fiercely, and gradually drawing nearer to +the great stone fountain which rears its stately mass from one of the +grass plots. The boating men had a slight advantage in numbers, but +the footballers were, with some few exceptions, a heavier lot, and +progress was slow. Piper fought savagely and disabled one or two of +the men who were dragging him along, while his friends were mostly +engaged in a series of single combats round him. There is no knowing +how the battle would have ended. In spite of their slightly superior +force it is doubtful whether Mirrilees's and Tait's party could have +succeeded in inflicting the punishment on Piper which they intended. +But before they reached the fountain a little party of dons who had +been apprised of what was going on came running down the steps of the +hall towards the struggling and swaying mass. They were led by the +Senior Dean. "Stop this, gentlemen, stop this," he shouted, as he +reached them. A few of them stopped irresolutely. The rest paid no +attention to the order. It is doubtful if they heard it. The Senior +Dean, who was a man of resolution, threw himself among them, followed +by one or two of his companions. At first there was no result, except +that dons and undergraduates were mixed up together in one general +_mêlée_. But gradually the voice and energetic action of authority +began to tell. First one left off fighting and then another, until +Piper and the men who had got hold of him were the only ones still +left. Deprived of the assistance of his backers, Piper was carried +with a little run right up to the steps of the fountain, but there the +Dean and a few stalwart Fellows who were helping him managed to stop +them by sheer force, and the fight ceased, leaving a dishevelled +panting crowd of combatants facing one another, with the stern figure +of judicial vengeance master of the field. Names were taken, orders +given, and the crowd slowly dispersed. The boating men held the +conviction that if they had been left alone they would have done what +they meant to do and avenged the defeat Piper had administered to +Lucius. At any rate they had given him a lesson which he wouldn't +forget in a hurry. The football men made a great deal of the fact that +they had been overpowered by superior numbers. _They_ were also +greatly cheered by the conviction that they had given their opponents +something that they wouldn't forget in a hurry. + +The sequel to the fracas was rather curious. It resulted in an entire +healing up of the feud that had arisen, no one quite knew how, for it +dated from before the issue of the _New Court Chronicle_. These +quarrels between two sets of men are rare in the University, but they +sometimes arise and continue for a year or so and then die away. This +one would have disappeared slowly in due course, because no two sets of +men can be said to be absolutely clear and distinct one from another, +but are merged at some points by friendships between their respective +members. But, the matter having been brought to a head by the quarrel +between Lucius and Piper, and the bad blood let off, the ill-feeling +disappeared as if by magic, and men who had fought with one another on +that night by the fountain might have been seen in one another's rooms +later on in the term the best of friends. + +There was one exception to the general amicability. Piper, who was an +evil-tempered fellow, emerged from the tussle in a black rage, and +continued in it for much longer than a normally constituted man would +have found such a state of mind possible. + +The Senior Dean being wise in his generation, and having a fairly +shrewd idea as to how the unseemly fracas had arisen, and what was +likely to be its result, dealt lightly with the offenders. There were +a good many official interviews and a few "gates," and then the matter +was allowed to drop. None of the combatants actually told him in so +many words what had been the immediate origin of the fray, but Mr. +Binney having discovered the day after that Piper was more determined +than ever to continue the publication of his paper, had paid an early +visit to the Dean and asked him to suppress it officially. He had +brought the term's numbers already issued with him, and the Dean +gravely perused the "Binney Correspondence" then and there, while the +object of it sat uneasily before him watching his face. + +"I don't defend this, Mr. Binney," said the Dean, laying down the +papers on his table when he had finished them. "A great deal of it is +very offensive. But, you know, you've got yourself to thank for most +of it. + +"I know--I know," said poor little Mr. Binney, whose cock-sureness in +his treatment of Deans and Tutors had been considerably reduced of +late. "A good deal of it might fairly have been said of me last term. +But it isn't true of me now. With the exception of a dinner in my +rooms on the second night of the term, after which occurred some +insubordination for which I was not responsible, nothing of the sort +mentioned here has happened. I have been one of the quietest men in +the college. It is my fixed intention to bring an action for libel +against this man Piper," he continued, with a slight return to his +former manner, "if this goes on, and if you don't see your way of +stopping it, sir. It is intolerable." + +"You will not find it necessary to do that, Mr. Binney," said the Dean. +"I will see that it is stopped. You had better leave these papers with +me." + +It did not add to Piper's amiability when it came to his turn to be +interviewed, to be told by the Dean that he had perused several numbers +of the _New Court Chronicle_, and that it was about time that +publication came to an end. He allowed Piper to argue the point, but +when he found that they were no nearer an agreement on it than before, +he told him peremptorily that he had made up his mind that the paper +should be stopped, and stopped it must be. He pointed out several +offensive articles aimed at the authorities of the University and +Colleges, and alluded very little to the "Binney Correspondence," and +finally found it necessary to tell Mr. Piper that he might choose +between publishing another number of the paper and remaining at +Cambridge. + +So the _New Court Chronicle_ came to an end, and neither Mr. Binney nor +Lucius suffered any further annoyances from the printed expression of +Piper's malice. The effects of the hitherto published instalments of +the "Binney Correspondence," however, did not end there as far as Mr. +Binney was concerned, as will afterwards, appear. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LUCIUS MAKES ONE DISCOVERY AND MRS. TOLLER ANOTHER + +Lucius was out and about again, not much the worse for his late +encounter, by the time Tuesday came round, when he was to lunch with +his cousin. He was in fairly good spirits as he walked down the King's +Parade and Silver Street, towards the ancient pile of Queens' College. +He and his father were better friends than they had been any time since +Mr. Binney had come into residence at Cambridge. Mr. Binney now +comported himself with the dignity that befitted his years, and no +longer made his son's life a burden to him by those continued +indiscretions which had brought shame and confusion of face to Lucius +in the past. He had restored his full allowance, and Lucius was better +off in pocket than he had been since Mr. Binney had come up. And then +the Newnham girl, to whom somehow he seemed to be getting nearer, now +that he had discovered that she and his cousin were fellow-students, +had distinctly given him a glance of recognition when he had seen her +in King's Chapel on the previous Sunday. It was not much to pride +himself on, certainly, but such as it was he had hugged the thought of +it ever since. She had been sitting with some other girls in the front +row of seats as Lucius walked up the chapel, and he had taken +particular notice of those other girls when he had manoeuvred himself +into a seat opposite her, in case one of them should turn out to be his +cousin. + +John Jermyn kept in a charming set of oak-panelled rooms over-looking +the river. + +There was an elderly lady sitting in the window seat as Lucius entered, +who rose to greet him. She was tall and graceful, with a sweet face +and grey hair. + +"You are very like your dear mother," she said, her eyes growing a +little moist as she looked at him. "We used to be great friends in +days gone by, but that is twenty years ago now." + +Lucius sat and talked to her in the window seat, while John Jermyn +wandered about the room with his hands in his pockets casting impatient +glances at the clock on the mantelpiece and the lunch on the table. +"Betty is late," he said. "I told her half-past one, and it is getting +on for a quarter to two." + +"We had better not wait any longer," said Mrs. Jermyn, rising. But +just then light steps were heard on the staircase, the door opened, and +disclosed to Lucius's astonished gaze the form and features of the +Newnham girl. + +Miss Betty Jermyn came forward, rosy and a little out of breath, with +murmured apologies, kissed her mother and her brother, and then waited +with a deepening blush and a mischievous light in her eyes, to be +introduced to Lucius, for whom the low dark room seemed suddenly to +have become filled with brilliant sunshine. + +"This is jour cousin Lucius, Betty," said Mrs. Jermyn, and the two +shook hands, but found no words with which to address one another. + +In the course of luncheon it came out in the most natural way that +Betty and Lucius had attended the same lecture in Trinity College all +last term, and remembered one another perfectly. + +"But you must have known who I was," said Lucius, a sudden light +breaking in on him, as he remembered those little glances of amusement +which had so thrilled his soul last term. "Gandey always used to read +out our names after the lecture." + +"Yes, I knew who you were," said Betty, with a little laugh. "And I +wondered how long it would be before you knew who _I_ was." + +Lucius felt that when he was alone again he would be very angry with +himself for not having cultivated the society of his cousin John more +assiduously, and also for having refused Mrs. Jermyn's invitation to +stay with them in the Christmas vacation, but at present he was so +happy that there was no room for regrets. + +It was quite apparent to the maternal eyes of Mrs. Jermyn before lunch +was half over that this nice boy with his mother's eyes was head over +ears in love with her pretty little daughter, whom she still looked +upon as a child, in spite of the dignity conferred upon her by a +scholarship at Newnham. Her son, of course, saw nothing of the sort, +but he was pleased to find that his cousin, who was something of a hero +in his eyes, seemed to have taken a fancy to his sister, whom he found +it constantly necessary to keep in her place. He was afraid that Betty +would never learn to show reverence where reverence was due, but it was +a relief to find that Lucius apparently did not take her little +audacities amiss, and indeed seemed to be even amused by them. What +Mrs. Jermyn thought, it would not become us to disclose, but she +accepted Lucius's invitation for the whole party to lunch with him on +the next day, and her cordiality towards him had suffered no diminution +when they parted. + +It was curious that Mr. Binney's name was not once mentioned between +them. John Jermyn had given his mother a rather highly coloured +account of our hero's peccadillos, and Betty had added her little +comments, for the fame of Mr. Binney's exploits had penetrated even the +walls of Newnham College. + +"Oh, mother," she had said, "you really can't have anything to do with +cousin Peter. He is a horrid little man and leads Lucius such a life, +so everybody says. And Lucius is so popular with all the men. It is a +great shame." + +"I never cared for Mr. Binney very much," said Mrs. Jermyn, "but I +should like you to ask Lucius to meet us, John. I should like to see +dear Lucy's boy, although I saw very little of her after her marriage." + +So Lucius had come, been seen and had conquered, and went away again +full of delighted wonder at the surprising thing that had happened. +His first desire was to find the sympathetic Dizzy and impart to him +the astounding news. He tracked him down at the racquet courts and +brought him away when he had finished his game. + +"I say, old man," he said in as calm a tone as he could muster, "I've +found out the name of that girl at last. What do you think it is?" + +"Oh, I don't know," said Dizzy, who had lost his match, and was as +nearly inclined to pessimism as was consistent with his equable nature. +"Henrietta, I should think, or Lulu, or Kate. Parents haven't any +taste nowadays. Look at mine christening me Benjamin. Stubbs is bad +enough, but Benjamin! 'Pon my word I sometimes feel inclined to get it +changed by Act of Parliament." + +"Her name is Elizabeth J----" + +"Yes, it would be," interrupted Dizzy. "Elizabeth Jones. Just what I +said. Well, what are you going to do about it?" + +"I didn't say Elizabeth Jones," said Lucius. "Elizabeth is a very +pretty name, especially when it's shortened to Betty. Her surname +isn't Jones, it's Jermyn." + +"Oh, is it? Well, I'm not so sure that--_what_! JERMYN!! You don't +mean to say----?" + +"Yes, I do," said Lucius triumphantly. "That very girl is my cousin at +Newnham, and no other." + +"Well, I'm blowed!" exclaimed Dizzy. "But there, Lucy, I always told +you if you'd only take the trouble to hunt your cousin down, or rather +up, she'd turn out to be a topper. And I was right. When are you +going to have her to tea?" + +"She's coming to lunch to-morrow," said Lucius. + +"I'm engaged to-morrow, I'm afraid," said Dizzy. "Going to lunch with +Blathgowrie. I dare say I could get off it, though." + +"You needn't try," said Lucius; "but I'll get her to tea some day soon, +before her mother goes away, and then you can come. Oh, my goodness! +What a chance for a fellow! to be head over ears in love with a girl, +and think he's never going to get to know her, and then for her to turn +out to be his own cousin after all." + +"Did she say anything about me?" inquired Dizzy. + +"About you? No. Why should she?" + +"Why shouldn't she, you mean. I'm a very striking looking feller. She +must have noticed me in the lecture-room last term." + +"You needn't trouble yourself that she'll waste many thoughts on _you_." + +"Oh, all right, old man. Keep your wool on. Now, don't forget to ask +me to tea one of these days. I won't try and cut you out; you can rely +on me." + +The remainder of that week passed like a happy dream to Lucius. He +managed to spend some time every day with his cousins, found his way +right inside Mrs. Jermyn's heart, and seemed to make very good headway +up to a certain point with Betty. That is to say, they became +excellent friends, and were on perfectly familiar terms, but at the end +of the week he was no nearer knowing whether she reciprocated his +admiration than at the beginning, for beyond a certain point he was +never allowed to go. When Saturday came, Mrs. Jermyn went away and +left Lucius desolated. But she had already asked him to stay with them +in Norfolk during the Easter vacation, and he was left in by no means +such a state of hopeless longing as before, for he managed to meet his +cousin pretty often during the rest of the term, and although he was +never allowed to enjoy the pleasure of her company for very long, she +seldom met him without a few words of conversation passing between +them, which gave Lucius something to live for now that the University +boat had gone to Putney and left him behind in Cambridge. + +Mrs. Jermyn had not been able to avoid Mr. Binney altogether during her +stay at Cambridge. She thought that she ought to see something of him +now that his son seemed likely to become an intimate friend in her +family. Accordingly Mr. Binney was notified of her arrival, and called +on her at the "Bull" where she was staying. Mr. Binney had not yet +recovered from the events narrated in the last two chapters, and was in +a depressed and dull state of mind. He quite forgot to patronize Mrs. +Jermyn on the fact of her son being a scholar of Queens' College, while +he was a pensioner of Trinity, as he certainly would have done a few +months before. Mrs. Jermyn talked chiefly about his wife, and Mr. +Binney, who had been a widower for fifteen years, and had set up the +image of Mrs. Higginbotham in the niche left vacant by the death of +Lucius's mother, followed her lead with some uneasiness of mind. There +was no warmth of feeling between them, and each was mutually relieved +when Mr. Binney rose to take his leave. He apologised for not asking +his cousins to lunch, but explained that he had to be down on the river +early every afternoon, and Mrs. Jermyn was not sorry that the +invitation was not given. + +Mr. Binney, of course, still corresponded regularly with Mrs. +Higginbotham. He had refrained from sending her the _New Court +Chronicle_, or, indeed, from mentioning that feature of it which most +nearly concerned him, for some slight sense of dignity, which he had +appeared to have relinquished during the Michaelmas term, had returned +to him, and he was not anxious to have it known that he was treated +with ridicule. He wrote about his work and about the prospects of the +First Trinity first Lent boat, and if his letter did betoken a +depression of spirits, the tender Mrs. Higginbotham put this down to +his separation from her and threw a wealth of affection and sympathy +into her replies, which greatly consoled Mr. Binney during his trying +time. She also expressed herself delighted with the improvement in +conduct displayed by her undergraduate lover, for, although Mrs. +Higginbotham liked to read stories of youthful daring and devilry, when +theory resolved itself into practice her mind recoiled affrighted. Mr. +Binney was fond of imagery, and he often assured Mrs. Higginbotham at +this time that her love and confidence in him was the rock to which he +clung while the waves of adversity buffeted him; it was also an anchor, +and a port, and a city of refuge; a ray of sunshine, a star, a beacon, +a lantern; a refreshing fountain, an oasis in the desert, a cup of cold +water; a buckler, and a good many other things. Mrs. Higginbotham made +no attempt to discover what the waves of adversity were that were +reported to be buffeting Mr. Binney. She liked his poetical method of +expressing himself; she said it made her feel warm all over, and there +she let the matter rest. + +But there was a serpent in this garden of mutual esteem. If Mrs. +Higginbotham did not read the _New Court Chronicle_ and was ignorant of +the dreadful things that were being said about her Peter, there was +someone else who was fully acquainted with them. + +The day after Mr. Binney's dinner-party in Russell Square, Mrs. Toller +called upon Mrs. Higginbotham, as she had announced her intention of +doing. She waited for ten minutes alone in the drawing-room before +Mrs. Higginbotham made her appearance. The first three or four she +spent in refreshing her memory of the contents of the room. Then, +growing bolder, she inspected the contents of Mrs. Higginbotham's +Davenport writing-table, without, however, discovering anything that +interested her. Thinking she heard a step on the stair she seated +herself quickly beside the fire and snatched up a paper from the little +table by her side. Nobody came, and Mrs. Toller then turning over the +little pile of periodicals, lighted upon the creased copy of the _New +Court Chronicle_ which Mr. Binney had posted from Cambridge. + +"Well! upon my word!" exclaimed Mrs. Toller to herself when she had +perused the paragraph in "Madge's Letter" already referred to. She +then turned to the title page of the paper and made a note of the +publisher's address on the little ivory tablet she carried in her +purse. When she had done that she heard Mrs. Higginbotham approaching, +so, hastily burying the _New Court Chronicle_ under the pile and taking +up _The Christian World_ instead, she affected to be so deeply +interested in its varied contents as to be unaware of Mrs. +Higginbotham's approach until that good lady had closed the door behind +her and begun to make apologies for her delay, which had arisen through +the arrival of a dressmaker to "try on." + +When Cambridge University had once more got into the swing of term +time, there appeared every Monday morning among Mrs. Toller's +correspondence a wrapper enclosing a paper directed from that ancient +seat of learning. Mrs. Toller always secreted this and opened it after +breakfast when the Doctor had retired to his study, for her +subscription to the _New Court Chronicle_ cost her sixpence halfpenny a +week, which was more than the good Doctor paid for having the _Daily +Chronicle_ served up hot with his breakfast every morning. University +journalism is not apt to afford great entertainment to people outside +the University where it is practised, but Mrs. Toller, although a woman +of economical habits, counted the information which she derived from +the _New Court Chronicle_ cheap at the price which she paid for her +subscription, and looked forward keenly to the budget of news which +arrived for her every Monday morning. + +It must not be supposed that Mrs. Toller intended to keep her +information from her excellent husband; she was far too good a wife for +that. What she meant to do was to keep the _New Court Chronicle_ to +herself until the end of the term, in order that Mr. Binney's infamies +might heap themselves up until she had a good budget of scandal to lay +before the Doctor. The game went merrily on for four or five weeks and +there was matter of offence against Mr. Binney enough to have brought +down upon him the wrath of the whole congregation of which he was so +distinguished a member. But Mrs. Toller's appetite, whetted by the +disclosure she had already surprised, thirsted for more. More she +would have had, for Mr. Piper had got his hand thoroughly in, but, as +we know, the _New Court Chronicle_ had come to an untimely end, and +great was Mrs. Toller's disappointment when she received, one Monday +morning, instead of the journal she had so looked forward to during the +whole of the Sunday's religious exercises, a letter from the publisher +informing her that the publication had ceased, and that he begged to +return to her the remainder of the term's subscription. However, there +was quite enough upon which to act. + +The Doctor retired to his study as usual after breakfast. Mrs. Toller +got her daughter out of the way, produced the numbers she had already +received, and refreshed her memory of the whole of the "Binney +Correspondence." Then she sought her husband, who was taking a +well-earned rest after his Sabbath labours over a novel, which he +hastily secreted upon the entrance of his wife. + +"What's that you're reading, Samuel?" said Mrs. Toller. "I shouldn't +waste my time over that trash if I were you. I've got an important +matter to talk to you about." + +Dr. Toller breathed a sigh of resignation. He knew those important +matters. If they were not complaints of the behaviour of various +members of his congregation, they were generally household matters +which Mrs. Toller could very well have settled for herself. + +"You know how deep an interest I take in the welfare of the church," +began Mrs. Toller, seating herself in the easy chair by the side of the +fire. + +Dr. Toller knew only too well. "Yes, my dear, certainly," he said. + +"I should be very sorry," pursued Mrs. Toller, "if any scandal occurred +through the behaviour of one of our most prominent members, especially +when he happens to be a deacon." + +"Yes, my dear," interrupted Dr. Toller hastily, "but I think that is +hardly likely to happen. All our deacons are men of irreproachable +character." + +"I am not so sure about that," said Mrs. Toller. "There is one of them +who seems to be rapidly treading the broad road, and if he is not very +sharply pulled up, I tremble to think of the catastrophe that may +occur." + +"Oh, nonsense, my dear," said Dr. Toller. "You must surely be +exaggerating. There is an occasional tendency towards undue +interference on the part of our officers, who are some of them men of +more money than brains, although I wouldn't for the world have it known +that I said so. But I have no reason to dread anything worse than +that. You have got hold of some trivial matter and are magnifying it +in your mind--quite unintentionally, I am sure," he added hastily, +observing the ominous stiffening of Mrs. Toller's upper lip, "and with +the best of intentions, I am sure." + +"I am not aware," said Mrs. Toller, drawing herself up, "that +drunkenness is a trivial matter, Samuel, or revelry. If it is so, I +have misread the meaning of Scripture, and I should be glad to be +corrected." + +"Of course, my dear," said Dr. Toller, "such things are very dreadful, +but you have surely no reason to charge one of our deacons with +such--er--crimes." + +"Read the passages I have marked with blue pencil in these papers," +said Mrs. Toller, rising and handing the doctor her little bundle of +ephemeral journalism. "And then say if you can justly accuse me of +exaggeration, which I beg to say is not a habit of mine. I will leave +you for a quarter of an hour and then return." + +When Mrs. Toller did return she found the Doctor chuckling over some of +the humorous sallies of Mr. Piper's young lions. + +"Samuel!" she exclaimed, "is that the fashion in which you treat a +serious matter like this? Such ill-timed levity is surely out of +place." + +"Quite so, my dear, quite so," said her husband, his face instantly +becoming serious. "I was not laughing at the news about Mr. Binney, +which I finished perusing some time ago. Some of these young men are +very clever. But really, with regard to Mr. Binney, I fully share your +feeling, my dear. Mr. Binney has always been rather erratic, curiously +so for a man of his years and position, but I could never have believed +that this sort of thing would happen. I--I--hardly know what to say +about it. But how did you get hold of these papers?" + +"Never mind that," said Mrs. Toller firmly. "We must act, and act +promptly so as to save scandal." + +Dr. Toller disliked acting at all on Monday morning, but he saw that +his wife was not to be trifled with, and said, "Certainly. Yes. I +quite agree with you. What shall I do?" + +"You must go up to Cambridge instantly, and remonstrate with the +misguided man." + +Dr. Toller looked blank. "Do you think that is necessary?" he asked. +"I should have thought a letter would have answered the purpose." + +"Not at all," said Mrs. Toller. "Mr. Binney is in that state of mind +in which he would take no notice of a letter. Severe expostulation and +ghostly advice are what he wants. He must be checked in his profligate +career at all costs, or worse may come of it. I should go with you, +but I have my mothers' meeting this afternoon, and I am not one to +neglect my duty." + +"But, surely, my dear," exclaimed the Doctor, "you would not wish me to +go to Cambridge to-day?" + +"Certainly I should," replied Mrs. Toller. "Why procrastinate? And +yet, I don't know. To-morrow perhaps I could accompany you. Perhaps +there is no necessity." + +"If it has to be done," said Dr. Toller, "perhaps it had better be done +to-day. It is not a pleasant business, but I agree with you that the +gravity of the occasion demands immediate action, and I shall not +shrink from taking it. I am really astounded at the disclosures made +in these papers. If the extraordinary course Mr. Binney appears to +have taken were to come to the ears of the church committee, I don't +know what would happen. I will go to Cambridge after the ladies' Bible +class this afternoon, and I think I will stay the night, my dear. I +should like to have a look round the colleges, that is if you have no +objection." + +"Yes, you can do that," said Mrs. Toller, "if you like. And you might +call on Lucius and see how he is behaving himself, and on young +Bromley, at Emmanuel College. And mind, Samuel, I shall expect a full +account from you when you return home." + +So Dr. Toller packed his bag and traveled up to Cambridge by the five +o'clock train. He drove first of all to Corpus, where he had a friend +among the Fellows. He was persuaded to dine in Hall before he set out +on his visit to Mr. Binney, and enjoyed himself exceedingly at the High +Table, and in the Combination room afterwards. He did not disclose his +object in coming up to Cambridge, but heard quite enough about the +extraordinary career of Mr. Binney, who enjoyed considerable notoriety +at the University, to persuade him that his visit of expostulation was +really needed. About nine o'clock he told his host that he wished to +call on an undergraduate, and putting on his clerical cloak and hat, he +went round to Trinity College, where he was directed by the porter to +Mr. Binney's rooms in Jesus Lane. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MR. BINNEY GETS INTO TROUBLE + +Since the dinner at the beginning of the term Mr. Binney had done +nothing further to bring him under the displeasure of the authorities. +Howden, in return for the pecuniary assistance he had received, kept +his noisy friends away from him almost entirely, and so managed it that +none of them considered himself ill-used by the cessation of Mr. +Binney's former hospitalities. He worked very hard, and if the absence +of his previous amusements did make life rather dull to him, the +excitement of the coming Lent races and the probability that the crew +he was steering would give a good account of themselves buoyed him up. +Everything went well, the men were trained to a nicety, and most of +them were confident that their boat would go head of the river. On the +morning of the races Mr. Binney was too nervous to work. He attended +one lecture, but found himself quite incapable of discovering any +meaning in the lecturer's remarks. After that he relinquished the +attempt to turn his mind to anything except boat-racing, and wandered +about the town, with his hands in his pockets, looking the picture of +misery. By-and-bye it occurred to him to pay a visit to his son and to +try and extract some consolation from that experienced oarsman. He +found Lucius engaged over a game of piquet with the ever-cheerful +Dizzy. Lucius looked rather ashamed of himself when his father +entered, but Dizzy was not at all put out. + +"Ah, Mr. Binney," he exclaimed, "very pleased to see you. We are just +unbending our great minds a little. All work and no play, you know, +won't do at all." + +But reprehensible as card playing at twelve o'clock in the morning +undoubtedly is, Mr. Binney made no comment upon his son's occupation. + +"I am terribly nervous, Lucius," he said. "I wish this afternoon was +well over." + +"What! Got the needle!" exclaimed Dizzy, while Lucius cleared away the +cards. "Well, I'm not surprised at it. My old governor once had to +make a political speech. He don't know anything about politics, but +the big man had disappointed 'em, and they couldn't get anybody bigger +at a day's notice. I assure you he got so nervous that he lost the use +of his limbs and had to be massaged for an hour before he went off to +the meeting, and when he got there he made such a hash of it that +nobody's ever asked him to talk since, although he frequently obliges +when he _isn't_ asked." + +"Political speaking is nothing to this," said Mr. Binney. "I know all +about that. When I put up for the County Council two years ago, I had +to make a speech every night of my life for a fortnight, and I enjoyed +it, although I didn't get in; but I feel so nervous now that I really +don't know what to do." + +"You will be all right, father," said Lucius, "when you find yourself +sitting in the boat with the rudder lines in your hand. Make a good +lunch and forget all about it till it's time to go down to the river. +I should take a glass of brandy if I were you. It'll pull you +together, and can't do you any harm as you're not rowing." + +"Brandy, Lucy!" echoed Dizzy, "the very worst thing you could possibly +take. Don't you remember Dale who coxed the Eight at Eton. When he +was in the lower boats he got the needle to such an extent he cried all +the morning. Some fellow gave him half a glass of brandy. It made him +as merry as a cricket. He said he didn't care for anybody, but he +forgot which was his left, and steered 'em into the bank before they +had rowed twenty strokes." + +"I am not likely to do that, Stubbs," said Mr. Binney, slightly +offended. "I'm not a child. I'm a man with a head on my shoulders, as +Mirrilees has often told me, but all the same I wish it were all over." + +Just then Mirrilees himself came into the room and looked a little +disturbed at finding Mr. Binney there. It was quite easy to treat him +as a freshman of no importance when he was by himself, but in the +presence of his son Mirrilees found the position awkward. + +"You're bound to catch Pembroke to-night, I think," he said shyly, "and +I should certainly think you will go head on Saturday if everything +goes well." + +"I feel so nervous, you know, Mirrilees," said poor little Mr. Binney. +"It's all very well for you young fellows who are used to it, but it's +all new to me, and it's no use pretending I feel at my ease." + +"Oh, for heaven's sake don't lose your head," said Mirrilees anxiously, +"or Third will bump you to a certainty. They're not so good as you +are, but they always go off with a rush, and may hustle you a bit at +first. If they don't catch you before Grassy you'll keep away all +right, and ought to run into Pembroke at Ditton Corner." + +"Third's pretty good," said Lucius. "They're not to be sneezed at. We +generally row faster than we are expected to." + +Then followed a long discussion between Lucius and Mirrilees upon the +respective merits of the two boats, which was not calculated to allay +Mr. Binney's nervousness, so he took his leave, and wandered about +again until lunch time, more disconsolate than ever. A hundred times +he wished he had never joined a boat club and even that he had never +come up to Cambridge. + +He passed a very trying few hours until it was time to go down to the +boat-house. During the long row down to the starting-point he +discovered that he had not entirely forgotten all that he had learnt +about the art of steering and felt a little better. But when the crew +got out of the boat and waited about in the drizzling rain for the +first gun his fears returned and he was unable to take any part in the +mild horse-play with which the rest of the crew beguiled the interval. +The bustle of getting into the boat again and seeing that everything +was right with stretchers, rowlocks, and steering-gear, revived him a +little, but during that awful minute before the last gun, when the boat +was shoved out and the men sat forward with every nerve on edge, while +the coach stood on the bank, watch in hand, telling off the relentless +seconds, Mr. Binney's face of gloom and despair was a picture to +behold. He was convinced that he was going to drop the chain so that +it would foul the rudder lines, or not drop it at all, or pull the +wrong string, or perform one of those mistakes to which the best of +coxswains are liable at these terrible moments. + +But the gun went off at last, and before Mr. Binney had time to realise +that they were fairly off, the boat was swinging down the river and he +himself was steering as straight as an arrow towards the vivid blue of +the Pembroke cox's blazer, feeling as capable and clear-headed as he +had ever done in his life. + +At first it seemed almost impossible to believe that they would ever +make up the distance which lay between them and the boat which was +moving along so steadily in front of them. But they had not rowed +twenty strokes before Mr. Binney realised that they were slowly +creeping up. + +A wild exultation took hold of him. "We're gaining!" he cried. + +Stroke's face was immovable, but he quickened up slightly. Another +thirty strokes and there was only a length between the two boats. Then +Pembroke spurted and began to draw away. + +Mr. Binney's face fell. "We're losing ground!" he said, but Stroke +made no answer. His eyes were fixed upon something past Mr. Binney's +head, and our hero suddenly woke up to the fact that the cries of: +"Third! Third!" which came from the bank behind him, were now much +nearer and almost as loud as those of "First! First!" from their own +supporters alongside. + +A panic seized him, and he quickly turned his head and saw the nose of +the Third Trinity boat within six feet of his own. As he did so, he +unconsciously pulled one of his strings and the pursuing boat shot up +to within two feet. + +"Steady, there, steady!" growled Stroke, with an awful frown. + +Mr. Binney pulled himself together and set his teeth, determined to +think of nothing but the Pembroke boat, which had now increased its +lead to a length and a half. + +"How far are they ahead?" asked Stroke, in a low voice. + +Mr. Binney told him. Stroke quickened up and Mr. Binney had the +delight of feeling the boat shoot away under him, while a tremendous +roar from the men on the bank told him that Third Trinity was being +left behind and that all danger of being bumped by them was over for +the present. + +Up and up went the boat; the length and a half was lessened to a +length, then to half a length, then to a few feet. The Pembroke stroke +quickened, and drew away for a few seconds, but the spurt soon died +down. First Trinity went on gaining. The Pembroke cox began to wash +them off with his rudder. + +They had now reached the Red Grind, and Ditton Corner was close ahead. +Mr. Binney bided his time and crept in a trifle closer to the bank. +The nose of his boat began to dance up alongside the stern of the one +in front. Then the Pembroke cox made a mistake and steered into the +river. "We've got them," yelled Mr. Binney. + +Stroke made a mighty effort, which was answered by Pembroke, too late, +for the Trinity boat was shaving the corner, while they were right out +in the river. Mr. Binney held his course until the nose of his boat +was level with No. 5's rigger. Then he pulled his left string sharply +and ran into them just behind their coxswain's seat. + +"Well steered," said Stroke quietly, as he rested on his oar. +"Couldn't have been done better." And Mr. Binney tasted the joys of +paradise. + +The next day Mr. Binney's nervousness had vanished entirely. He +thirsted to be again in the fray, and looked forward keenly to +repeating the triumph of the previous afternoon. Needless to say he +wrote a long, exultant letter to Mrs. Higginbotham, recounting his +success and the honour it had brought him. Lucius and Dizzy came round +in the morning to congratulate him and to wish him luck in the coming +race. + +"Of course I wish Third had bumped them," said Lucius, as they walked +down Jesus Lane together, "but still the governor would have been so +sorry for himself that it's just as well they didn't." + +"You would have had your screw docked, Lucy, if Third had caught them," +said Dizzy, "so you may consider yourself jolly lucky they kept away." + +"Oh, that's all over now," said Lucius. "The Governor behaves much +more respectably than he did last term. If that business had gone on I +really don't think I could have stopped up here." + +Mr. Binney received their congratulations with equanimity. He had +jumped from the depths of self-distrust to the height of complaisance, +and now felt that if he had gone to Putney with the University crew the +victory of Cambridge over Oxford would have been assured. + +"Oh, it's as simple as anything," he said, in answer to their +congratulations. "I can't think what ever can have made me feel so +nervous yesterday." + +"Don't you be too cocksure about it, Mr. Binney," said Dizzy. "I knew +a fellow once who rode in a steeple-chase. He'd got by far the best +nag, and the odds were four to one on him. But he was so certain of +winning that he forgot he was riding in a race at all, and got off to +pick a flower after he had jumped the first hurdle. By the time he +remembered where he was and got on again, the other fellows had reached +the winning post. The bookies nearly murdered him." + +Mr. Binney was not in a frame of mind to take warning by this awful +example of forgetfulness. He was so talkative in the changing room +that he was severely snubbed by the Captain of the boat. Jesus, the +boat in front of them this evening, ought to have presented no +difficulties and would certainly have been caught by Pembroke in the +long reach the night before if First Trinity had not made their bump at +Ditton. Mr. Binney steered very badly at Grassy and lost a lot of +ground. His steering round Ditton Corner was a little better, but +nothing like so good as on the previous evening, and again Jesus got +away. First Trinity made their bump at the railway bridge, but the men +had had a hard race instead of a very easy one, and some unpleasant +things were said to our hero when the race was at last over. + +The next day Mr. Binney had learned a lesson, steered well, and caught +Lady Margaret at Ditton much in the same way as Pembroke had been +bumped on the first night. + +First Trinity were now in the second place on the river, and had their +work cut out for them to bump Trinity Hall on the last night. + +It was generally agreed that they were slightly the better boat, but +whether they were good enough to overcome the advantage that the head +boat always has in rowing in clear water, was a disputed point. They +had at any rate nothing to fear from the boat behind them. Mr. +Binney's previous experience had brought him into the right state of +mind to enable him to do his best. The three bumps he had already made +had given him confidence, and his mistakes of the second night +preserved him from being over-confident. + +First Trinity made up their distance by the time they had reached the +Red Grind, and from that time there was never more than a few feet of +daylight between the two boats until the end of the race. At Ditton +they overlapped, but Mr. Binney made his shot too early, and the Hall +just managed to keep away. The enthusiasm from the supporters of the +Crescent, standing or running on the banks, had the effect of steadying +Mr. Binney's nerves. A ding-dong race ensued, right up the Long Reach, +but with all their exertion the First Trinity men were unable to +increase their distance. At the railway bridge the nose of the +pursuing boat was a foot past the rudder of the other. But Mr. Binney +knew that if he made a shot at them now all was lost. + +"Plug it in," he said in a low voice to Stroke, "and we've got them." + +Stroke did plug it in. He was nobly seconded in one last despairing +effort by the men behind him. The nose of the First Trinity boat crept +slowly but surely up, Mr. Binney pulled his left line just in the nick +of time, and First Trinity bumped the head boat not a dozen yards from +the winning post. + +A very proud man was Mr. Binney that evening when everything was over, +when they had rowed back to the boat-house with the heavy flag flapping +behind them and the cheering crowd of men accompanying them on the +bank. When he had changed and gone home to his rooms with the +pleasures of an amusing bump supper in the hall before him, he sat down +in front of his fire and went over in his mind the causes for +self-congratulation. At last he had done something which raised him +out of the common ruck of University men, something that could never be +taken away from him. He saw in imagination his rudder with the Trinity +coat-of-arms, the names and weights of the crew and the cox, and the +conquered colleges emblazoned upon it hanging up in his hall in Russell +Square. His imagination did not stop there. He saw other rudders +nailed up by its side, of which at least one should bear the combined +arms of Oxford and Cambridge. He felt that he had acquitted himself so +as to earn him Mrs. Higginbotham's undying admiration, and visited a +telegraph office immediately upon his return in order to send that +excellent woman the earliest information of his brilliant achievement. + +At the bump supper that evening Mr. Binney was the gayest of the gay. +He did not exceed his usual allowance of wine. This, in spite of the +unmannerly taunts of the _New Court Chronicle_, he had never yet done +and would have been ashamed of doing. But he was so excited by his +success that other members of the party who had not been so careful as +himself gave him full credit for having done so, and laughed +uproariously at his sallies of wit, clapped him vigorously on the back, +and displayed all the usual signs of the best of good fellowship. + +Mr. Binney made a speech. He always did make a speech whenever there +was an opportunity. He said that this was the proudest moment of his +life. (Cheers.) He should despise himself if he thought otherwise. +(Cheers.) He thought that the cox was the most important man in a +boat. (Loud cries of "No! No!" and laughter.) Well, if he wasn't the +most important, at any rate, they couldn't get on without him, and he +was very proud to find himself in a position of that sort. He had had +triumphs in his life before now (cheers and laughter), but they were as +nothing to this. He didn't know how to say enough about it, although +he was used to public speaking. (Laughter, cries of "Union.") Some +gentleman had mentioned the word "Union." Well, he had thought at one +time that success at the Union was the best sort of success that +Cambridge could afford. He didn't think so now. Give him success on +the river--he would leave all the rest to gentlemen not so fortunate as +himself. (Loud applause and cries of "Sit down.") He saw around him a +great many friends. (Laughter.) He hoped he might call them friends. +(Cries of "Certainly," "By all means.") They were all jolly good +fellows, and so say all of us. (Cheers.) He had said before that this +was the proudest moment of his life. He would say it again. +(Laughter, and the rest of Mr. Binney's speech, which he appeared to be +about to begin all over again, was drowned by vociferous cheers which +were gradually rounded off into "For he's a jolly good fellow," sung in +chorus by everyone present.) + +At the close of the evening, just before twelve o'clock, as Mr. Binney +was going out of college, arm-in-arm with two jovial companions, the +gate was opened to admit Piper and one or two more football players who +had gained a great victory over Dublin University that afternoon in the +last match of the season, and had since celebrated the occasion by a +more protracted dinner than was good for them. + +Piper was, in fact, very drunk, and his potations always had the effect +of making him extremely quarrelsome. At this particular juncture he +was, in American phraseology, "looking for trouble." He found it in +the obnoxious person of his late butt, Mr. Binney, who came towards him +smiling, his gown put on inside out, over his somewhat disordered +evening clothes. + +The sight of Mr. Binney roused Piper's smouldering ill-humour to the +point of frenzy. With a muttered execration he went for our hero. Mr. +Binney saw him coming, and with a shriek of terror, turned round, +loosening his hold upon his two companions, and fled terrified back +towards the hall. + +Piper gave a yell, and started off in chase, but lost his footing at +the two steps leading into the Court, and enabled Mr. Binney to get a +clear start as far as the fountain, before his pursuer was up and after +him again. + +His two friends made no attempt to protect him. They shrieked with +laughter at the ridiculous spectacle, and rolled about doubled up in +their ecstasy of amusement. + +But fortunately for Mr. Binney the Great Court was full of his late +companions of the feast. "Save me, save me!" cried the poor little +man, as he ran towards a group of them near the kitchen staircase. +Piper was still a _bête noir_ to a great many of the rowing men, +although with his exception the feud between oarsmen and footballers +was now quite healed. Mr. Binney ran through the astonished group, +down the narrow passage leading into the Hostels. They closed up their +ranks and let Piper run into them. There was great confusion for the +moment, and cries of "Now then, sir, where are you coming to?" and the +like. Piper forgot for the moment where he _was_ going to, and in the +meantime his companions came up. One of them was Howden, who was in +the effusive after-dinner stage. + +"You're the fellows who went head of the river, aren't you?" he cried. +"You're jolly noble fellows all the lot of you, and I shall be proud to +shake hands with you all round. We're the fellows who have beaten the +Irishmen by two goals and a try to nothing. And that's all right, +isn't it?" + +It appeared to be all right, certainly, for the two groups immediately +fraternised with mutual expressions of admiration. And even Piper was +so overborne by the general good feeling that he relinquished his +intention of spilling Mr. Binney's blood, and allowed himself to be +drawn off, while our hero crept round by Neville's Court, through the +screens and out again through the Great Gate, still somewhat +frightened, and by no means so hilarious as he had been five minutes +before. + +The next morning Mr. Binney woke up feeling rather cheap, but not +without a thrill of pride when he recalled the glorious achievements of +the last four days. He went to the chapel which he was accustomed to +attend twice on a Sunday, and thought that every member of the +congregation must have heard of his prowess on the river, and be eyeing +him with admiration as he handed round the plate at the close of the +service, clad in his undergraduate's gown. As he sat at his solitary +lunch Howden came in. + +"Hullo, Binney, old chap," he said, "here you are at last. I've been +in once or twice to try and find you this morning. You did jolly well +in the races. I was there on Friday and saw you make your bump." + +"It's a splendid thing, you know, Howden," said Mr. Binney, "taking +part in a great contest like that. You know what it is, for you're a +celebrated athlete yourself. It makes you feel warm all over, doesn't +it?" + +"It makes you feel black and blue all over," said Howden, "after a game +like yesterday. We didn't do so badly, Binney, did we? We never +expected to beat them like that. Look here, I've got some of the +fellows who were playing yesterday coming to supper with me this +evening, and two of the Irish chaps who are staying here over Sunday +are coming as well. You come too, Binney. We shall have a jolly rowdy +evening, quite like old times. You're out of training now, and you +haven't had a bust since the beginning of the term. Eight o'clock in +my rooms." + +Mr. Binney looked shocked. + +"What, on Sunday evening?" he exclaimed. "My dear Howden, I couldn't +entertain the idea for a moment." + +"Oh, well," said Howden, somewhat abashed, "we shan't be doing any +harm. You must feed somewhere even if it is Sunday." + +"I always dine in hall on Sunday," said Mr. Binney, "and go to church +afterwards. I am sorry I can't join you, Howden, although, if it had +been on any other night in the week, I should have been delighted. +Those dinners we used to have were rather good fun, weren't they? I +shouldn't mind another one now if we could keep it a bit quieter. I'll +tell you what, Howden, we _will_ have another dinner in my rooms +to-morrow night; just to celebrate our going head." + +"What, the old lot!" exclaimed Howden. "That will be ripping, Binney. +I've never had such jolly dinners since I've been up here as yours +were. You're such a capital good host, you know." + +"Well, I like entertaining my friends," said Mr. Binney, much +gratified. "I used to enjoy those dinners myself, but they certainly +were getting rather too rowdy. We must keep a bit quieter to-morrow." + +"Right you are," said Howden, and he and Mr. Binney drew out a list of +half a dozen constellations of the athletic world, who had already had +experience of Mr. Binney's hospitality in days gone by, and might be +supposed to be willing to partake of it again. + +Mr. Binney's dinner was a repetition of those which had brought him +into disrepute during the previous term, only, instead of being quieter +than had been customary with those entertainments, it was a noisier +revel than any of them. Bumpers had to be drunk to the First Trinity +Boat Club, and to the cox of its first Lent boat. This was done before +the fish came on. By the time the _entrée_ had made its appearance +success to the University Rugby Football Club had been duly honoured, +and the healths of the various members of it there present brought them +to dessert in a state of hilarious good fellowship. Mr. Binney usually +objected to bumpers, but it was pointed out to him that his refusal to +empty them would be considered a cowardly insult to his guests in whose +honour they were proposed. + +Alas! before dinner was well over, Mr. Binney was in a state the mere +imagination of which would have made him blush with shame in his more +collected moments. His face was flushed, his speech thick, and his +laughter meaningless but incessant. His guests were, most of them, in +a similar state, and the unhappy little man, instead of mildly rebuking +them for their excesses, as he had been accustomed to do, encouraged +them to further libations, and filled their glasses himself with an +unsteady hand, and giggling exhortations to make a night of it. At a +later stage of the evening Mr. Binney was on his legs making the +inevitable speech. It was an entirely incoherent speech, but his +hearers applauded it no less for that. When a gleam of intelligence +did detach itself from Mr. Binney's rambling procession of verbiage and +pierce their heated brains, the cheers and hammerings on the table rose +to fever pitch, and spurred on the poor little object to still greater +exertions. During one of these interludes, when the applause was at +its height and Mr. Binney stood leaning against the table with glassy +eye and fatuous smile waiting for the din to subside, and bracing +himself up for a further attempt, the door of the room opened, and a +tall black figure, its face wearing an expression of scandalised +amazement, stood framed in the door-way. It was the Reverend Dr. +Toller come to expostulate with the wandering sheep of his otherwise +irreproachable flock. + +Mr. Binney was the first to notice him. He frowned slightly in a +determined effort to regain his scattered senses. Then the amiable +smile spread once more over his face as he recognised his friend. + +"Dorrertoller!" he cried, in a delighted impulse of hospitable welcome. +"Come in, my dear sir, and dring a glass o' wine. You see me, +Dorrertoller, s'rounded by m' friends, celebrelating merrificent +vickery, boclub. Genelmel, 'low me, ole friend, Dorrertoller. Come +in, ole boy. Mayself tome. Siddown." + +"Mr. Binney!" said the good doctor in an awful tone. "Are you aware, +sir, of the terrible scandal you are bringing upon yourself and your +friends by this unseemly--this disgraceful conduct?" + +"Thashalri, Dorrertoll," said the unhappy Mr. Binney. "Siddow. All +ole frells here." + +It would ill become us to protract the account of this shameful scene. +Dr. Toller, shocked and horrified beyond all bounds, lifted up his +voice in expostulation and reproof to the best of his ability, but all +in vain. Mr. Binney was past taking heed of rebukes, and wandered +foolishly along, pressing the doctor to make one of the party, and +drink the health of some of the best fellows he was ever likely to +meet. That at least was the intention of his invitation, but his +enunciation not being so clear as could be wished, the warmth of his +welcome could only be gathered from his engaging smile and his +ineffectual attempts to drag a chair up to the table, a chair on which +one of his guests happened already to be sitting. Most of the other +men took Dr. Toller for a Proctor and kept quiet, while Mr. Binney used +his utmost endeavours to induce him to join them. They returned again +to their previous state of merriment when the Doctor had left the room, +having perceived that anything that he might have to say to Mr. Binney +would have to be kept until the next morning. + +Later on in the evening, a Proctor did pay them a visit, the noise +having become so insistent that it was bound to attract the attention +of any one passing down Jesus Lane. He took the names of all the +party, but Mr. Binney went to bed in happy oblivion of the event, as +well as of the advent of his pastor, and woke up in the morning with a +bad headache and a dim impression that something had happened the night +before which would cause him great uneasiness if only he could remember +what it was. + +As he sat with throbbing head and smarting eyeballs over a late cup of +tea, which he dignified by the name of breakfast, a "bull-dog" was +announced, who brought him a slip of paper requesting him to call on +the Junior Proctor at a stated time. + +Mr. Binney groaned. He had a dim idea that he had had an unfinished +conversation with a Proctor at some previous state of his existence, +but he could not remember when. He supposed it must have been during +the previous evening, but he could not remember having gone out after +dinner. + +A little later on, a similar notice was brought to him from his Tutor. +Mr. Binney was in such a low state that he actually shed tears at this +fresh misfortune. He must have done something very bad indeed. If +only he could remember what it was! But he couldn't, and his head was +too painful to allow him to exert it to any great extent. All he knew +was that he would never be able to hold up that head again. He would +be sent down for a certainty. He would be eternally disgraced in the +eyes of all his friends, before whom he had been used to bear himself +so proudly. He grew cold when he thought of what Mrs. Higginbotham +would say to him. Then his thoughts flew with a deadly sinking of +heart to Dr. Toller and his fellow-officers in the congregation of +which Dr. Toller was the shining leader. At this moment there was a +ring at the bell, and in a few moments Dr. Toller himself was +announced. Mr. Binney buried his head in the cushions of his armchair +and wept aloud. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +NEMESIS + +Dr. Toller left Mr. Binney an hour afterwards, chastened and repentant. +The full enormity of his crime had been brought home to him. His only +plea was that this was the first time such a dreadful thing had +happened. Dr. Toller did not refer in direct terms to the _New Court +Chronicle_, as he remembered in time that his wife had not told him +before he left home how its numbers had fallen into her hands. But he +drew from Mr. Binney an account of the occurrences of the term, and +amongst them of the attack that Piper had made upon him in his paper. +"I went in for revelry to some extent last term," Mr. Binney explained, +"but, even then, nothing of the sort that happened last night took +place. This term my life has been hitherto irreproachable, and I did +not deserve these attacks." + +Dr. Toller was pleased to hear it. Poor Mr. Binney was so ashamed of +himself and looked such a pitiable object bundled up in his armchair +with a despairing look on his white face and black rings under his +eyes, that he readily promised to keep the account of the previous +night's orgie from Mr. Binney's friends in Bloomsbury, and before he +went gave the repentant sinner full absolution and a great deal of very +good advice. + +When the doctor had removed himself it was time for Mr. Binney to call +on the Proctor, who was a Fellow of Jesus College. Mr. Binney crawled +along down the sunny side of the lane feeling very miserable. But the +interview was not quite so painful as he had imagined. The Proctor was +a young man with a keen sense of humour. He tried to impart a fitting +air of severity into his strictures on the disgraceful scene he had +interrupted, but spoilt it all by bursting into a peal of laughter in +the middle of his lecture. After that there was nothing further to be +done but to extort a heavy fine from the culprit and to let him go. +Mr. Binney felt somewhat relieved as he walked out through the gates of +Jesus down the passage into the lane, but his heart sank again like +lead as he remembered his coming interview with his Tutor. He had just +time enough to go into his rooms and drink a glass of milk and soda, +before it was time to repair to Trinity College to undergo the ordeal +of Mr. Rimington's displeasure. + +Mr. Binney had to wait some time in the Tutor's ante-room. His +thoughts were very bitter as he sat turning over the pages of a book, +keenly aware of the titters and whispers of the men who were waiting +with him. + +The Tutor's face, when Mr. Binney at last entered the inner room, was +not reassuring. It wore a severe, and, to Mr. Binney's overstrung +perceptions, it seemed a contemptuous look. Mr. Rimington did not +shake hands with his pupil as was his wont, but motioned him to a chair +and plunged immediately _in medias res_. + +"You know, of course, why I have sent for you, Mr. Binney," he said. +"I have no intention of expostulating with you. I have tried that +already, and it proved to be of no avail. I simply have to say that +the college can no longer put up with the way you choose to behave +yourself, and you must go down to-day." + +"What? go down for good, sir?" said poor Mr. Binney in a broken voice. + +"Yes, I think so," said the Tutor. + +"Oh, surely you can't be so hard as that," pleaded Mr. Binney. "Think +of the disgrace, sir." + +"I do think of the disgrace," said the Tutor, with a short laugh. "I +wish you had thought of it yourself a little sooner." + +It will be remembered that on the last occasion of a conversation +between Mr. Rimington and Mr. Binney, the latter had taken a very high +line, for which he had subsequently apologised, but not quite +adequately. Mr. Rimington had become very tired of Mr. Binney's +methods of speech and conduct, and had made up his mind to speak +shortly and sharply, and not to allow any discussion of his decision. +He was not, however, prepared for the total breakdown of Mr. Binney's +opposition to his authority. The poor little creature sitting crumpled +up before him in abject and hot-eyed misery was a very different person +from the combative self-sufficient gentleman who had resisted his +warnings in such a high-handed fashion when he had before animadverted +on his conduct, so he did not refuse to listen when Mr. Binney began to +plead with him in a piteous, broken-hearted manner. + +"I know I have disgraced myself, sir," he said, "I feel it deeply. But +such a thing will never happen again, and it has never happened before." + +"Oh, pardon me, Mr. Binney," said the Tutor. "This affair is only the +climax to a consistent course of such behaviour. I have had reason to +speak to you before about it. You can't possibly have forgotten that." + +"Not about drunkenness, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I was drunk last +night, you know. I confess it. That has never happened before, and +will never happen again." + +"There are degrees of culpability, of course, in these matters," said +Mr. Rimington. "Where you seem to disagree with me is in thinking that +these disorderly meetings are allowable at all when a man of your age +and influence takes the lead in setting all rules of order and good +conduct aside." + +"I don't disagree with you at all, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I am very +sorry that anything of the sort has ever happened in my rooms. I +promise you, if you will only give me another chance, that it shall +never happen again." + +"You forget, Mr. Binney, that I ventured to impress my views upon you +at the end of last term, and warned you that if anything of the sort +happened again I should be compelled to take a serious view of it. The +first man I had to deal with at the beginning of this term had got into +trouble through--er--his companionship with you. And further than that +your name has become synonymous with disorderly behaviour throughout +the University." + +What would not Mr. Binney have given at that moment to recall the +vanished days and spend them to better advantage? The contemptible +light in which he must appear to men of his own standing was borne in +upon him like a flood, and he felt that it would indeed be better if he +left Cambridge for good and never showed his face there again. + +"I deserve to be sent down in disgrace," he said feebly. "There is +only one reason why I beg you to exercise your clemency--for the sake +of my boy." + +Mr. Rimington's mild eyes flashed fire. "I can scarcely trust myself +to speak to you on that subject," he said. "If I do so it is because I +feel it my duty as a clergyman to try and bring home to you the +enormity of your conduct towards your son. Are you incapable of----" + +"Oh, don't, don't," interrupted Mr. Binney in a broken-hearted voice. +"I see it all. Nothing you could say would be so severe as what I say +to myself. I can't bear it. I can't really. But just think what an +awful thing it would be for him to have it said that his father was +sent down for drunkenness. He would bear the brand of it all his life." + +"It seems to me," said the Tutor dryly, "that you have already given +him something that he will have reason to be ashamed of all his life. +I have a great admiration for your son. I tell you candidly, Mr. +Binney, that I don't know one other undergraduate who could have held +up his head in Cambridge after what he has gone through." + +"Oh, don't say any more, I beg of you," cried Mr. Binney, cut to the +heart. "And don't make things worse for him by sending me down." + +"If I thought for a moment that your staying up here would make things +easier for him," said Mr. Rimington, "I own I should hesitate, although +I don't say that my decision would be altered. But it seems to me that +the very kindest course to pursue on his account would be to prevent +his having any further cause to be shamed by your conduct up here. No, +Mr. Binney. You must go down this afternoon. I have spoken to one or +two of my colleagues about it, and our decision is irrevocable. I see +no use in protracting this painful interview." + +Mr. Binney pleaded and besought, but all to no avail, and left his +Tutor's presence at last, a disgraced and despairing man. + +The feelings of Lucius towards his father are too painful a subject to +dilate upon. Never surely, since the wide doors of Cambridge +University were opened to all comers, had any of its members been +placed in a more disagreeable position. Looking back on this trying +time in after years, Lucius wondered how he could ever have endured +life at Cambridge for a single day. But he had attained to that state +of sympathetic intimacy with his cousin in which he could pour out some +of his troubles to her when they met, and be gently but effectually +consoled for them. Betty had never met Mr. Binney, but she knew him by +sight, and nourished a fierce and bitter enmity towards him. + +Lucius met his cousin, on the morning after his father's fall, outside +the lecture room of St. John's College, where she was engaged for an +hour three mornings in the week. The other girls who were with her +gave Lucius a glance and then hurried off through the gate, leaving +them alone. + +"Good-bye, Lucius," she said hastily, "I must go. I don't know what +those girls are running away for like that." + +"Do let me walk back with you, Betty," said Lucius. "I'm so beastly +miserable, I don't know what to do." + +"Very well, then. Just for once," said Betty, after a look at his +face. "We'll go along the Backs." + +"I suppose you haven't heard about my father last night, have you?" +asked Lucius, as they made their way across the bridge. + +"No. What about him?" asked Betty. + +"I really sometimes think he's going off his head," said Lucius +despondently. "He was so pleased at his boat going head of the river +that he gave a great feed. There was a terrific row. In the middle of +it the old fool I have to go and hear preach at home turned up. +Goodness knows what brought him. He came to see me this morning just +after breakfast, and seems to think I must have been in it too, +although he knew I wasn't there. He began a long solemn jaw, but I was +so sick I shut him up. He's an awful old outsider, and he's got +nothing to do with me, even if I had done something he didn't approve +of, which I haven't." + +"But it doesn't matter what _he_ thinks, does it?" asked Betty with all +the scorn of the rector's daughter against a member of a usurping caste. + +"I don't know," said Lucius dubiously. "His wife is a spiteful old +woman. Of course it will get to her ears and then it will be all over +the place. There's one good thing, I have been away from home such a +lot, and have so many friends outside, that it won't matter so much to +me as it might have done. But it will be awful for the poor old +governor. I don't think he knows what he's laying up for himself." + +"Oh, I shouldn't bother my head about him if I were you," said Betty +airily. "It's his own fault, and he's got himself to thank for it. +It's you I'm thinking of." Then she blushed a little. + +Lucius blushed too. "You are so awfully kind," he began, "and----" + +"Yes. Thank you," interrupted Betty, hastily. + +"But I really shouldn't know what to do if it wasn't for you," +persisted Lucius. "It's like----" + +"Yes, I know," interrupted Betty again. "But you haven't told me all +about last night yet, have you?" + +"No," said Lucius, his face falling again. "The row reached such a +pitch that the Proctors came in. My gyp told me that the governor was +going to be hauled this morning, and I shouldn't wonder if he were sent +down." + +"Well, that will be all the better for you, won't it?" inquired Betty, +unmoved at the awful announcement. + +"I don't know. I haven't thought of that yet," Lucius admitted. "But +I'm afraid it will kill the poor old governor. I shall go and see him +when I get back. I'm awfully sorry for him, although he has been so +tiresome. But don't let's talk any more about it. We're nearly there. +I say, Betty----" + +"I think you'd better go back now," said Betty. "You've come quite far +enough," and Lucius was not bold enough to disobey her. + +He found Mr. Binney just returned from his visit to his Tutor. "It's +all over, Lucius. I'm sent down," he said hopelessly. + +Lucius was at a loss for words. The humour of the situation suddenly +struck him, and he had hard work to prevent himself smiling. + +"I've been a bad father to you, my boy," went on Mr. Binney. "I see it +all now. I wish I had behaved differently. But it is too late. All +is over. The blow has fallen. I am a disgraced man." + +"Oh, come, cheer up, father," said Lucius. "I should think they would +give you another show if you promise to keep quiet in future." + +"No, they won't," said Mr. Binney. "They think I am spoiling your +chances at Cambridge. And they are quite right--oh, _absolutely_ +right." + +"What nonsense," said Lucius. "Is it only on my account they have sent +you down?" + +"That chiefly," said Mr. Binney, with the calm voice of despair. "But +they have lost faith in me. And quite right too. Oh, _quite_ right." + +"Well, I'll tell you what, father," said Lucius, "I'll go and see +Rimington and ask him to give you another chance. We're rather pals, +and he might listen, although it's rather cheek my tackling him." + +"Oh, Lucius, if you only would," exclaimed Mr. Binney, grasping his son +eagerly by the arm. "I believe he would listen to you. I do really, +and it's my only chance. I thought this morning that I shouldn't care +to stay at Cambridge any longer after what has happened. But I can't +bear the thought of going down like this. It is too awful." + +"Of course not," said Lucius. "I'll go at once." + +Mr. Rimington was still receiving when Lucius presented himself in his +anteroom. After a time he found himself cordially greeted by his +father's Tutor, and sat down without an idea as to how he should begin +what he had to say. + +"I've come about my father," he said, reddening and playing with the +tassel of his cap. "I hope you'll give him another chance, sir. It +wasn't altogether his fault that all the noise was made last night, and +he'll be very careful that it doesn't happen again. It will be rather +unpleasant for me if he is sent down," he added. + +"Has your father asked you to come to me?" asked Mr. Rimington. + +"No," said Lucius, "I come of my own accord." + +"Wouldn't you be happier up here if your father were--were at home, +Binney?" + +"I shouldn't be any happier if people could say he had been sent down. +In fact, I don't think I could stand it. He'll keep pretty well in the +background after this, I should think, and I don't much mind his being +up here if he does that." + +"I can't hold out any hopes of our decision being altered," said Mr. +Rimington after a pause. "It is not I alone who am responsible for it. +But I think that your wishes in the matter should certainly be +considered. I can't say more than that at present, and, as I say, your +father had better not entertain any hopes of our decision being +reversed. If there is anything more to say, I will write to him in +London." + +With this slender thread of hope Mr. Binney travelled home to Russell +Square that afternoon in sad and lonely dejection. His head still +ached after his excesses of the previous night, and his mood was so +dark that he put off the confession which he knew he should have to +make to Mrs. Higginbotham, until the next morning. As he dined in +solitary state that evening, attended by his neat and soft-footed +maids, he found himself wondering how the habits and customs of twenty +years could have broken down so completely under the influence of new +surroundings. Two years ago he would have been the first to hold up +pious hands of horror at the mere mention of an orgie such as he had +taken part in the night before. And, having returned once more to his +accustomed manner of life, he felt just as far apart from it as he +would have done then. But he could not keep his thoughts away for long +from the dark fact that he had just been expelled from the University +for continuous bad conduct, and it will be agreed that this cannot have +been a pleasant recollection for a middle-aged gentleman with a +grown-up son. + +Dr. Toller had promised Mr. Binney that he would keep to himself all +mention of the scene he had surprised. His doing so was only another +example of the eternal self-complaisance of human nature. Dr. Toller +was about as capable of keeping anything to himself that his wife +wanted to hear about, as a puppy is of holding a stick that its master +wants to take away. At twelve o'clock Dr. Toller returned from +Cambridge to the wife of his bosom. By a quarter past, Mrs. Toller was +in possession of the main outlines of his story, which had been filled +in before the half hour struck by all the details that Dr. Toller's +memory could supply. + +"You won't tell anyone else what has happened, my dear, will you?" said +Dr. Toller, when his wife had extracted all the information from him he +was capable of affording. + +"I shall tell what I please to whomsoever I please," said Mrs. Toller. + +"But, my dear, my promise," expostulated the doctor. + +"Bother your promise!" said Mrs. Toller, as she went out of the room. + +After breakfast the next morning Mr. Binney, to whom another day had +brought no cessation of the gnawing pains of remorse, took his courage +in both hands, and putting on his hat and coat, went round to Woburn +Square. + +The maid who opened the door to him gave a little start. "Mrs. +Higginbotham is not at home, sir," she said. "But she told me to give +you this little parcel if you happened to call." + +Mr. Binney took the parcel, neatly tied up and directed in Mrs. +Higginbotham's well-known writing. "Do you know when Mrs. Higginbotham +will be in?" he asked. + +The maid hesitated. "She told me to say she was not at home, sir," she +repeated awkwardly, and Mr. Binney went down the steps with the +terrible realisation hammering at his brain, that Mrs. Higginbotham had +heard of his disgrace and refused to receive him. + +He waited until he had returned to the seclusion of his own library +before he opened the packet which she had directed to him. + +It contained all the letters he had ever written to her. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LUCIUS FINDS A BACKWATER + +It was ten o'clock of a late April morning, one of those hot sunny days +which sometimes make it not unfitting that the term which in Cambridge +begins in April and ends in the middle of June should be known as the +Summer Term. The morning in Cambridge, as has been explained, is +usually devoted to books, but here was Mr. Lucius Binney of Trinity +College in a very light grey flannel suit and a straw hat apparently +making preparations for some sort of an expedition. He had collected +from different corners of the room a Japanese umbrella, two plethoric +silken cushions and a large box of chocolate creams. He put them down +on the table and looked for a moment longingly at his collection of +pipes, but finally contented himself with filling a cigarette case, +which he slipped into his pocket. At this juncture a step was heard +approaching. Lucius had just time to cover the box of chocolate creams +with a cushion before the door was opened and Mr. Benjamin Stubbs +entered the room. He was in cap and gown and carried a notebook. + +"Holloa!" he exclaimed, "going on the Backs? Not a bad idea this fine +morning. I've a good mind to cut lecture and come with you." + +"Oh I shouldn't do that, Dizzy, if I were you," said Lucius, "you'd +better go and hear what Mansell has got to say. I can crib your notes +afterwards." + +"We can both crib 'em off Hare," said Dizzy. "I should like a paddle +in a canoe. Lend us a hat and I'll leave these things here." + +"I haven't got another hat except that one with the Third Trinity +colours and you can't wear that." + +"Well, you Juggins, you can wear that and lend me the one you've got +on." + +"The other doesn't fit me very well," objected Lucius. + +"What rot! why, you wear it every day. I'll tell you what it is, young +man, you've got some game on and you don't want me to come. What is +it?" + +Dizzy here took up one of the cushions on the table and disclosed the +box of chocolates which it hid. Enlightenment diffused itself over his +intelligent features. + +"Oh, I see, yes," he said, "Good morning, Binney, I'm afraid I shall be +late for lecture." And he betook himself out of the room. + +"Silly ass!" soliloquised Lucius. Then he gathered up his properties +and made his way out across the Great Court, which lay wide and still +beneath a smiling April sky, through the Hostel and down the narrow +lane which leads to the river and the raft, where in summer-time a +flotilla of boats and canoes is moored under the trees. Lucius +selected a Canadian canoe and deposited a cushion at either end, +supplementing those supplied by the boatmen. The chocolate creams he +stowed carefully behind his own cushion, and taking his seat pushed out +into the open water through the maze of pleasure boats which stretched +half-way across the river. He was almost alone on the water. The +rooks cawed in the high elms which fringe the pleasant gardens by the +river, the whirr of a mowing machine came from some unseen lawn close +by; there was an idle summer feeling in the air. Lucius paddled in a +leisurely manner up the river, past the terraced gardens of Trinity +Hall, the prow of his canoe breaking up the reflection of the beautiful +Clare Bridge as he passed under it, along the spacious level lawn of +King's and under the King's bridge into the darker waters bounded by +the old buildings of Queens'. The illicit tinkling of a piano came +from an open window in the new King's buildings and two men leant idly +on the parapet of the bridge and watched him as he paddled slowly +underneath. When he reached the wooden bridge of Queens', the bridge +which Sir Isaac Newton is said to have erected without a bolt or nut, +he turned round and dropped down the river again. As he neared the +King's bridge he pulled out his watch. + +"She said half-past ten," he murmured to himself. "I suppose she is +bound to be a bit late. Girls always are." + +He lay back on his cushions and allowed the canoe to drift. Opposite +to him was the entrance to a backwater, arched over with trees, and +crossed by a wooden bridge. Lucius surveyed it idly. "I wonder if she +will come down there with me," he said to himself. + +At this moment a fair vision of youth and beauty in diaphanous summer +draperies came into sight on the river bank just above him. Lucius +sprang out on to the bank and knelt down on the grass to hold the canoe +for the fair vision to step into it. It was his cousin Betty. She +looked cool and fresh and not at all as if she was doing a very bold +thing as she stepped into the wobbly craft and settled herself on the +cushions opposite him. + +"This is ripping, Betty," said Lucius. "It is most charming of you to +come out with me like this." + +"You don't think I came for the pleasure of your company, do you?" +inquired Betty. + +"Oh, no, not in the least." + +"How conceited you are! You know you do think it." + +"I assure you, Betty, it never entered my head. When a girl writes to +her cousin and asks him to take her out on the river, he would be a +conceited ass, as you say, to imagine for a moment that she wanted to +go with him." + +"I didn't say I didn't want to go with you. If I must go at all I +would just as soon go with you as any one." + +"I don't know that there's any necessity for you to go at all if you +don't want to." + +"Ah, but you don't know everything." + +"Why did you come, then?" + +"I'll tell you when we get back again. Now paddle up to the Bridge of +Sighs." + +"How mysterious you are! But there's no hurry. Let us go down this +little backwater. You can't think how jolly it is. There are shady +trees on one side and a field with daisies and cows and buttercups and +things on the other." + +"No thank you, I don't want to go down a backwater. I want to paddle +down to St. John's and back." + +"What for?" + +"I shan't tell you yet." + +"Then I shan't paddle." + +"How tiresome you are, Lucius! You spoil all my pleasure in your +society." + +"You said you didn't take any pleasure in my society just now." + +"No more I do. Now paddle along, there's a good boy." + +"Who is that female on the bank taking such an interest in us?" + +"She isn't a female. Don't be rude. She's one of my particular +friends. Now go on please." + +"What is she doing there? Why doesn't she go home?" + +"She will, when we have been up to the Bridge of Sighs and back, and I +shall go with her. Now do paddle on and be quick. I shall get into a +row, you know, if anyone else sees me here." + +"I shan't go on until you tell me what all this is about. Don't get +into a temper. If you kick the bottom of the boat like that your foot +will go through and we shall both be in the water." + +"You really are too provoking, Lucius. I'll never speak to you again +if you don't go on directly." + +Lucius began to paddle on slowly. "Now, tell me," he said, "why you +wanted to come." + +"Well, if you must know, that girl betted me a box of chocolates that I +wouldn't, and I do love them so and I've spent all last quarter's +allowance and can't afford to buy any. Now do go on, Lucius, there's a +good boy. We have only got to get up to the Bridge of Sighs and back, +and I shall get them." + +Lucius stopped again. "I don't know that I want you to get them +particularly," he said, "after what you have said about not wanting to +come with me. Didn't you want to come with me a bit?" + +"No, of course not." + +"Not a little bit?" + +"No." + +"Then I shan't go on." + +"Oh--oh--oh! I feel as if I should like to throw something at you." + +"Well, why don't you? Look, there's the girl on the bank grinning at +you. How pleased she'll be if I let her win." + +"Horrid thing, she is! But I hate you worse still. I feel as if I +could do anything to you now." + +"What, hurt poor little Cousin Lucy? Oh, Betty, for shame!" + +"Well, if you won't go on, turn back then, and I'll get out. Only I'll +never speak to you again as long as I live." + +"I say, Betty, are you very fond of chocolates?" + +"Yes, I am, but I wouldn't sit here for another five minutes for all +the chocolates in the world. Turn round and go back, please." + +Lucius put his hand behind his back, and drew out the big box already +mentioned. + +"Look here; let's stop and eat these here, while that girl looks on. +Then we'll go up to St. John's and back and you can have hers too." + +This plan commended itself to Betty, and she spent a happy ten minutes +while the girl on the bank strolled about and pretended to be admiring +the Chapel of King's and the beautiful College of Clare, which are both +seen to advantage at the point where the canoe had stopped. + +There is a time when even Buszard's most expensive confections cease to +charm. When this time had arrived for Betty, she said, "I don't much +care if I don't get the others now, but I know I shall want them +to-morrow, so paddle on, Lucius. I'm much more pleased with you now." + +"Thank you, Betty," said Lucius, and the canoe proceeded on its way, +under the Clare, Hostel, and Trinity Bridges with the graceful willows +sweeping the water, round the curve where the classical front of the +Trinity library looks severely towards the paddocks and the elms, and +under the wall of the Master of Trinity's garden, where a blossoming +tree showed a mass of delicate pink against the red-tile gables of +Neville's Court, under yet another bridge flanked by the stone eagles +of St. John's, and between the walls of that college until they reached +their goal, the covered bridge, which, through no merit of its own, has +usurped the name of the Bridge of Sighs. + +"Thank you," said Betty. "Now be quick and get back. What a sell for +that girl! and we haven't met anybody to matter either." + +"Plenty of time for that. We've got to get all the way back again. I +didn't tell you before, because I thought you would be frightened, but +you remember Dizzy whom you met in my rooms last term when your mother +was up?" + +"Yes, I hope he isn't coming out, is he?" + +"Well, I'm afraid he is. It's an old standing engagement; he promised +to row a party of Newnham dons--seven of them--on the Backs this +morning." + +For one moment Betty's face blanched with terror. Then she said, "You +are a donkey, Lucius. Hurry up, please." + +But Lucius wasn't going to hurry up. He was very well content with his +present position. Betty reclined opposite to him in a graceful +attitude, the brilliant colour of the Japanese umbrella a setting to +her pretty face. + +"Why did you put on that pretty frock?" asked Lucius. + +"Because it is so hot; just like summer." + +"I know why you put it on." + +"Of course you do when I've just told you." + +"You put it on because you wanted me to think how pretty you looked in +it." + +"I didn't do anything of the sort. Don't be so silly." + +"You do look awfully pretty in it, you know." + +"Now, Lucius, if you begin saying that sort of thing I shall get out." + +"All right. The river is shallow here. It won't come much above your +shoulders." + +"Be quiet, and go on." + +"I am going on. I say, Betty!" + +"Well?" + +"Do you remember those lectures last October term?" + +"Yes, pretty well; I've got the notes of them at home if you want them." + +"Bother the notes! Do you remember how regular I was?" + +"How should I? I didn't know you then." + +"Oh, you wicked story! You knew who I was perfectly well, you little +witch, and you let me go on like that for two whole terms without +making a sign. It was cruel of you." + +"Well, did you expect me to stop you in the street and say I was your +cousin, when you had never taken the trouble to call on me?" + +"You know I thought you were at Girton. Father said you were, and +there _is_ someone called German there." + +"Yes, and you went to Girton such a lot, didn't you?" + +"I could swear now when I think what an idiot I was." + +"Then don't do it, please, although I quite agree with you. And, of +course, you were much too grand to come and see us at Christmas." + +"Confound it! I say, Betty, was it you who got me asked there?" + +"I certainly shouldn't think of doing so again. And it was mother who +asked you last vacation. I had nothing to do with it." + +"Then it _was_ you. Betty, you are a dar----" + +"Now, then, be quiet, please." + +"You and John are coming to us in town for a week, directly after term." + +"Poor old John. I wonder whatever he would say if he saw me now!" + +They had now passed Clare again, and were gliding slowly along between +the pleasant meadow and the great lawn towards King's bridge. + +"I say, Betty," said Lucius, "I don't want to frighten you, but who is +that on the bridge?" + +"I should think the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Newnham waiting +for us," answered Betty without turning round. + +"No, but really, I do believe it is John." + +Betty turned round and saw a man in a straw hat with a green and black +ribbon leaning over the bridge. + +"Yes, it is," she said, blushing scarlet, but speaking quite +unconcernedly, "he ought to be working. I shall blow him up for it." + +"Shall we turn round? He hasn't spotted us yet." + +"Turn round? Whatever for? You don't suppose I'm frightened of John, +do you?" + +"I don't know. You look rather as if you were." + +"Of course I'm not. But I don't know what he will think, and I should +look so idiotic if I began to explain." + +"What about that backwater?" + +"Is it very pretty?" + +"Yes, very. Hold your umbrella towards the bridge as we go round the +corner and he won't see you. I'll pull my hat over my face." + +So the canoe glided under the little wooden bridge and into the still, +shaded water beyond. + +The other girl, who was still walking about along the river bank, and +had seen it disappear, waited for an hour, and then went away furious, +half intending to report Miss Betty Jermyn to the authorities of her +college. Directly she had gone, the canoe came sliding out into the +river again. + +Betty was speaking. + +"I shouldn't much mind if John did see us now, should you, Lucius?" + +"Not a bit, darling," answered the happy Lucius. "But it wasn't John +at all. I looked when you were holding the umbrella in front of your +face." + + +Our narrative has dwelt so long on a series of painful and +discreditable events, that it is hoped that the account of how Lucius +and Betty, boy and girl as they were, made up their minds to spend +their lives together, may have dissipated the gloom which the +sympathetic reader will have experienced in following the chequered +career of Mr. Binney. We must now go back a little and fill up the gap +which we have left between the end of February and the end of April. + +And first let us say that the very time Lucius and Betty were cooing +like a pair of young doves in the seclusion of that backwater of the +Cam, which now holds for them more tender memories than any other spot +in the world, Mr. Binney was still in evidence as an undergraduate +member of the University of Cambridge. Lucius's plea had been +successful. A week after Mr. Binney's return to Russell Square he had +received a letter from Mr. Rimington, to inform him that he might come +up again at the beginning of the following term, but that the slightest +breach of discipline on his part in the future would mean a sentence of +instant dismissal from which there would be no appeal. + +But alas! this letter, welcome as its contents were, did not suffice to +raise Mr. Binney from the despondency into which he had fallen. After +the receipt of Mrs. Higginbotham's mute but eloquent dismissal he had +passed a week of such black despair that he could never look back upon +it in after life without shuddering. He had beaten his wings against +the doors of Mrs. Higginbotham's dwelling, but in vain. There was no +admittance for him. He had importuned her by post. His letters +remained unanswered. He scarcely knew how to bear the hard fate that +he had brought upon himself. He was all alone in the house, for Lucius +had gone straight from Cambridge to Norfolk, and was now engaged in the +Reverend Mr. Jermyn's pleasant rectory house and garden in laying the +train which eventually culminated in the scene between him and Betty +recounted at the beginning of this chapter. He would have gone down to +his place of business, but he was ashamed to face his manager and his +clerks. He thought that every one would know he had been sent down +from Cambridge. + +As a matter of fact, this particular event of his University career +never did become known to any but a very few. Even Mrs. Toller did not +know it, although Mr. Binney was convinced that she must have done, for +she cut him pointedly in Gower Street one afternoon as he crept +miserably along taking a little air and exercise, and audibly +instructed her daughter to do the same, as Mr. Binney raised his hat. + +After that he was not surprised to receive a letter from his fellow +deacons of Dr. Toller's chapel requesting him to resign his office, +which he did that day with an added pang of shame, and resolved that, +as he had now made the Baptist community too hot to hold him, he would +become a Wesleyan Methodist, and work his way up to a position of +authority in that body. He also made up his mind to let the house in +Russell Square, which was far too large for himself and Lucius, and +take a flat in Earl's Court, since Mrs. Higginbotham seemed to be made +of adamant, and there seemed very little chance now of her ever gracing +his establishment. With all these wrenches in his life, actual and +imminent, it may be imagined that Mr. Binney was not a happy man at +this time. + +When Mr. Rimington's letter came, he decided to make one more appeal to +Mrs. Higginbotham. He told her that he was going back to Cambridge, +and intended to lead a very different life in the future from that of +the past. Might he nourish a hope that if he did something to make up +for past disgrace, Mrs. Higginbotham would forgive him and smile on him +once more? + +To his intense relief and tearful joy Mrs. Higginbotham replied to his +letter. It appeared that he was not to be debarred from all hope. But +he was not to be allowed to see Mrs. Higginbotham again until he had +done something definite at Cambridge to atone for his past misconduct. + +"I do not mean success in your play-hours, Peter," wrote Mrs. +Higginbotham. "That you have already attained, and it has been the +means of leading you astray. Such success as that will never restore +my lost confidence in you. You must come to be well spoken of by +masters and pupils alike. You must rise to the top of your classes, +and acquit yourself well in your examinations. When you have done that +you may come and see me again. Until then the memory of the dreadful +trouble you have brought upon yourself and upon me, who trusted you, +must abide with me. I do not wish to load you with reproaches. Your +own conscience must be a very heavy burden for you to bear. But I +could not bear to see you with the account that one who shall be +nameless gave me of your conduct and appearances still fresh in my +memory." + +Mr. Binney stifled his renewed feelings of remorse and wrote to ask if +the passing of his Little-go in the following June might be considered +a passport to Mrs. Higginbotham's society? Mrs. Higginbotham replied, +Yes. If he passed that examination well and behaved immaculately in +the meantime he might consider himself on the old footing with her. So +Mr. Binney took heart, re-engaged the useful Minshull and retired to +Cornwall for the Easter vacation, where he ploughed away at his studies +so energetically that Minshull held out hopes of his attaining a second +class in one part at least of the examination. + +When Lucius paddled his canoe out of the backwater with Betty sitting +opposite to him in a flutter of dimples and happiness, there was +literally no cloud on his horizon. He had been up at Cambridge now for +three weeks and his father had never once given him occasion to wish +himself away. Mr. Binney behaved himself irreproachably. In fact, if +he had kept himself in the background as he was doing now from the time +he had entered the University, Lucius would have had no reason to be +ashamed of him at all. Even as it was, the contrast of what Mr. Binney +was now and what he had been when he first came up was so great that +the relief felt by Lucius almost made up for the distress he had +previously undergone. Mr. Binney as a subject for discussion had +somewhat lost interest by this time, and Lucius lived much in the same +way as he would have done if his father had never come to Cambridge. +Mr. Binney, whose nature was elastic, had recovered a little of his +self-importance now that he had nothing to fear from outraged +officialdom, and was rather inclined to patronise his son, and +generally to assume the high parental air with which he had treated him +before his own arrival in Cambridge. + +But Lucius, whose appeal had saved his father from expulsion, took it +all in excellent part, and was only too thankful that things were not +worse. He could have borne a great deal more and thought nothing of it +now that Betty had at last allowed him to put to her the all-important +question, and had given him the answer he wanted. He whistled gaily as +he walked up to his rooms from the river and thought himself the +luckiest fellow in the world. + +At the entrance to Whewell's Court he met Dizzy. + +"I've done it, old man," he said with a beaming face. "You're the +first person I've told about it." + +"Then I'm sure I'm extremely flattered," answered Dizzy, "although I +haven't the slightest notion what you're talking about." + +"I'm going to be married, Dizzy," said Lucius. "Will you be my best +man?" + +"Well, I'm going to play racquets at two," said Dizzy. "If you could +put it off till to-morrow perhaps I could----" + +"No, but really, Ben, I asked Betty this morning, and it's all right." + +"My dear old man," said Dizzy, grasping him warmly by the hand, while a +bright smile lit up his ingenuous features, "I couldn't have been +better pleased if I'd done it myself!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THIRD TRINITY MAKES A BUMP + +There never was such a little man as Mr. Binney for getting knocked +down flat and picking himself up again as cocky as ever. Lucius's +announcement of his engagement to his cousin Betty brought him to his +feet as pompous as if he had never been fined by a Proctor or rebuked +by a Dean. + +"I never heard of such a thing," he said indignantly. "Getting engaged +to be married at your age! Why, it's ridiculous. I won't have it. +That's flat." + +"What won't you have, father?" asked Lucius. "You can't stop my being +engaged to her, you know. That's over and done with." + +"It is not over and done with, sir," said Mr. Binney. "The engagement, +if there is one, must be broken off." + +"Why?" asked Lucius. + +"Because I say so," said his father. + +"You ought to give me a reason," said Lucius. "I'm not a child. I +love her and she loves me. Why shouldn't we be married? Of course I +don't mean now, but in two years' time or so, when you make me a +partner in the business." + +"You'll never be a partner in the business," said Mr. Binney, "if you +persist in this folly. You're a boy and she's a girl, and I won't have +it. It's ridiculous." + +"Of course she's a girl. I shouldn't want to marry her if she were an +old woman," said Lucius. "If you can't give me any better reason than +that, father, I don't think you're treating me fairly." + +Mr. Binney laid down the law for half-an-hour or so longer. He did not +produce a better reason for refusing his sanction to the engagement, +not having a better one to produce, unless he had told Lucius that he +was objecting simply for the pleasure of asserting his authority, which +was about the long and short of it. Lucius left him at last, somewhat +dispirited, and sought the society of Dizzy, his friend. + +"Governor won't hear of it," he said, laconically, as he threw himself +into an easy chair. + +"Why not?" asked Dizzy. + +"Wants to show his independence, I fancy," said Lucius. "He talked a +powerful lot of rot. Told me he'd turn me out of the house if I didn't +break it off." + +"Oh, he'll come round," said Dizzy encouragingly. "I know his little +ways. You stick to it. You'll find yourself settled in a +semi-detached villa at Brixton in a twelve-month, bringing home a +basket of fish for dinner, and making a row about the water-rate. +It'll turn out right in the end. You see if it don't." + +"I don't see much chance of it," said Lucius despondently. "The +governor swears he won't allow me enough to marry on for five years at +least. I've a good mind to take to gambling and try and pick up a bit +that way." + +"Rub your eyes, old man," said Dizzy. "This is Cambridge. It isn't a +novel by Alan St. Aubyn, although you _are_ in love with a Newnham +girl, and the first fellow I've ever known up here who's gone anywhere +near it. Not that they're not regular toppers, some of them," he added +hastily, anxious to clear himself from any suspicion of being wanting +in chivalry. "But that sort of thing don't happen, as they say in the +play. And that's all about it." + +"Well, it's happened with me," said Lucius. "And I'm pretty well down +in the mouth about it." + +"Look here," said Dizzy. "Shall I go and tackle your old governor? I +daresay he'd listen to me." + +Lucius laughed. "I won't stop you," he said, "but it won't be any +good." + +"We'll see," said Dizzy. "I'll go at once." + +When Lucius left his father, Mr. Binney began to turn over in his mind +the news he had received. He was not really displeased at it now he +came to think it over. Betty Jermyn was a very charming girl, and +there was no objection to her on the score of blood relationship, for +her mother had only been a second cousin of his wife's. They were both +very young, it is true, certainly too young to marry yet; but then they +did not want to marry yet. As far as money was concerned, Mr. Binney +fully intended to take Lucius into partnership with him in two or three +years' time. And even if the girl should prove to be penniless, as was +probable, Lucius would have quite enough to marry on directly he gave +him a share in the business. At this point in his ruminations Dizzy +entered the room. + +"Ah, Mr. Binney!" he said. "I thought I'd just look you up as I was +passing. How's the work getting on?" + +"Very well, thank you, Stubbs," replied Mr. Binney, with a pre-occupied +air. "Have you heard anything about this nonsense between Lucius and +his cousin?" + +"What, Miss Jermyn?" asked Dizzy. "Yes. I did hear they were thinking +of getting married or something of that sort. I didn't take much +notice of it." + +"Then you don't think Lucius is in earnest about it?" + +"Oh, I wouldn't say that. I should say he was in devilish deep +earnest." + +"Now, look here, Stubbs," said Mr. Binney. "Don't you think it's a +very ridiculous thing a boy not much over twenty getting engaged to be +married?" + +"Well, if you ask me for a plain answer, I can't say I do. I believe +in early marriages myself. It don't come so hard on the children. Now +look at my case. My old governor didn't marry till he was past fifty. +What's the consequence? When I go down from this place and want to go +about a bit and amuse myself, I shall have to sit by his bedside and +hold his hand. I'm fond of my old governor, but it isn't good enough." + +"That is a point, certainly," said Mr. Binney, thoughtfully. + +"Yes, and look at the other side of the question," continued Dizzy. +"You married young yourself, I take it, and here you are at the prime +of life with a son old enough to be a companion to you. Old enough! +Why, bless me, you're the younger of the two, and that's a fact." + +Mr. Binney was very much impressed by this argument. "There is a good +deal in what you say, Stubbs," he remarked. "I don't want to be hard +on the boy, of course, and I've no objection to the girl personally. +She seems a very nice girl, what little I've seen of her." + +"Oh, _she's_ all right. She's a topper," said Dizzy. + +"Of course I've got to keep up my authority, you know," pursued Mr. +Binney. "It won't do to slack the rein yet awhile." + +"By George, no," said Dizzy. "I should be a whale on parental +authority myself if I were in your place. Still, I don't think you'll +find Lucius disposed to question your decision. He told me himself he +had the utmost faith in your judgment and should follow your advice +whatever it might cost him." + +"Did he really tell you that?" inquired Mr. Binney, somewhat surprised. + +"Well, he didn't put it quite in that way," admitted Dizzy. "But +that's about what it came to." + +"Then if he feels like that about it," said Mr. Binney, "I shall put no +further obstacles in his path. He's a good boy, Lucius, and I'm +pleased with him." + +"He's got a good father," said Dizzy. "That's about the size of it," +and he took himself off to inform Lucius that he had managed everything +for him in a perfectly satisfactory manner. + +Mr. Binney had asserted his authority and was content. Subject to the +approval of Betty's parents, she and Lucius were allowed to consider +themselves engaged, with the prospect of marriage when Lucius should +reach the age of twenty-three. Mr. and Mrs. Jermyn made no objections. +Lucius had made himself very popular in the Norfolk rectory, and he was +a good match for their daughter from a worldly point of view. He went +about Cambridge for the rest of that term in the seventh heaven of +happiness. + +A few days after Lucius's future had been satisfactorily settled for +him, Mr. Binney had occasion to call on his Tutor. He now no longer +looked upon this as an ordeal. The sternest official critic could have +found no flaw in his behaviour during that part of the term that was +past, and he had no intention of giving any occasion for complaint +during the remainder of his residence in Cambridge. He could hold up +his head before anybody, and entered the Tutor's presence with an air +of conscious worth. + +Mr. Rimington received him pleasantly and attended to the business upon +which Mr. Binney had come. "I hope you are feeling happy amongst us +now that things are going more smoothly, Mr. Binney," he said as he +blotted the paper in front of him. + +"Thank you," said Mr. Binney, "University life is full of interest to +those who know how to value it." + +Mr. Rimington looked at him and smiled. "You have found out how to +value it now, have you?" he asked. + +"Certainly," said Mr. Binney. "I hope, sir, that you do not intend to +allude to past mistakes. I should resent such remarks on your part." + +"Oh, not at all," said Mr. Rimington hastily, "we have had no cause to +complain of you this term, Mr. Binney, and I have no wish to remind you +of what is over and done with. I hope you are getting on well with +your work." + +"I expect to take a first in both parts of the examination," said Mr. +Binney, rising. "Good-morning, sir." + +As the summer term passed quickly away with its feverish work and its +incessant pleasures, for it is the term when examinations closely +jostle its crowded gaieties, Mr. Binney found himself nearing two +important events. In one week about the beginning of June he was to go +in for both parts of his Little-go, and at the end of it to steer the +First Trinity first boat in the May races. With regard to his +examination, he felt confident of acquitting himself well. That he was +over-confident was shown by his boast to Mr. Rimington, for it is not +out of material such as himself that first classes are made, even in +the most elementary examination that Cambridge affords. But he had +worked so hard that he was certain of passing, and he looked forward +with trembling hope to a renewal of his intercourse with Mrs. +Higginbotham as a reward of his success. In being chosen to steer the +representative oarsmen of First Trinity he had been extremely +fortunate. When he had so disgraced himself in the previous term after +the success of his boat in the Lent races, Mirrilees had sworn that he +should never again steer a boat with which he had anything to do. But +one of the coxswains tried for the first boat had fallen ill, others +had proved unsatisfactory, and by the middle of term, by which time Mr. +Binney had already proved that his manner of life would be innocuous +for the future, Mirrilees had relented, and he was installed in the +proud position that he so coveted. Trinity Hall was the head boat on +the river, First Trinity was second, and Third Trinity was behind them. +All three were considered equally good, and no one could safely +prophesy what the result of the races would be so far as they were +concerned. The Hall men laughed at the idea of losing their place; the +First Trinity men expected to bump them, and said so; while Third +Trinity kept quiet, but expected to find themselves in the second place +if not head of the river by the time the races were over. + +Lucius was rowing bow in the Third Trinity boat, and his quiet +confidence that Third were a better crew than First exasperated Mr. +Binney, who wouldn't hear of it. + +"Don't talk such nonsense," he said in an annoyed tone, when Lucius +ventured to advance the opinion that Third would finish head of the +river and First second. "We shall row away from you, and catch the +Hall at Ditton on the first night." + +"We shall see," said Lucius calmly. + +"No, we shall not see, sir," said Mr. Binney angrily. "I mean we +_shall_ see. And we shall see that I am right." He had quite +recovered his bombastic tone, only he had learnt by bitter experience +to quell it, except when addressing his son, who was too good-tempered +to resent it. + +Betty, of course, showed the utmost interest in the prospects of the +Third Trinity crew. She was delighted when she heard that they were to +row behind the boat which was to be steered by Mr. Binney, for she +still maintained a deep-rooted prejudice against her future +father-in-law, in spite of the welcome he had given her as Lucius's +intended bride. "If they bump them, and I see it," she said to one of +her friends, the girl from whom she had won the box of chocolate +creams, "I think I shall scream with joy. Oh, won't cousin Peter's +face be worth seeing when he has to hold up his hand and acknowledge he +has been beaten. I'd give worlds to see it." + +"You show a very vindictive spirit," said her friend. + +Mr. Binney's time was fully occupied between putting the finishing +touches to his reading, and his work on the river. He had almost +entirely dropped out of the social side of University life. Although +his wings had been clipped, and he would now have been a quite harmless +companion, the men with whom he might have associated, had he behaved +differently when he first came up, still looked rather shyly on him; +and he had entirely dropped the society of men like Howden, for he had +learnt such a lesson that he would have been almost frightened of +results if one of them had even come into his rooms. Indeed, the poor +little man led a very dull life, and when he had time to think about +it, on Sundays perhaps, or for half-an-hour after his work was done, +and before he went to bed, he often asked himself what was the use of +his staying up at Cambridge at all, since so much of what he had hoped +to gain from the place seemed to have been an illusive dream. He had +lost his Martha, at any rate for the present, and in his moments of +insight he could not disguise from himself the fact that he was +unpopular, although he endeavoured to carry off the conviction with an +added bumptiousness of manner which did not endear him to those with +whom he came in contact. He would probably have made up his mind to +leave Cambridge after this term, when he would have passed one +examination and attained to a considerable measure of success on the +river, but one consideration deterred him. He hoped to be chosen to +steer the University boat in the following spring, and on the chance of +having that ambition realised he would have stayed on at Cambridge if +everyone in the place had cut him. + +June came and brought the roses, and with them the anxieties of +Triposes and all the multitude of lesser examinations. Mr. Binney went +in for the Little-go. All day long he sat at a narrow desk in the Corn +Exchange, that classical building which the University of Cambridge +periodically hires for the purpose of putting her sons through their +facings, and wrote assiduously, only leaving off now and again to gaze +up at the roof with an expression of agonised effort, or to rest his +brain for a minute by idly reading the names on the corn dealers' +lockers which lined the walls. On these occasions he would find his +thoughts wandering off to business affairs, for the corn dealers' names +meant considerably more to Mr. Binney than to the other few hundred +undergraduates who attained a short-lived familiarity with them during +those few days of effort. But when he found his thoughts slipping he +would bring them back with a frown and wrestle eagerly with his +translations and his problems, for the card nailed on to the desk +before him reminded him that he was "Binney of Trinity," and that Peter +Binney of the Whitechapel Road must be ignored at least for the next +few days. + +The examination lasted from the beginning of the week until Friday, and +the May races began on that day. The hotels and lodgings throughout +the town gradually filled up with ladies, old and young, plain and +pretty, amiable and perhaps ill-tempered, although the smiling faces +one met in all the streets might have given the impression that all the +bad-tempered ladies had been left at home. But Mr. Binney took very +little notice of the change. By day he slaved in the Corn Exchange. +After his afternoon's work was over he went out with his crew on the +river. In the evening he looked up his subjects for the following day +and went to bed early with his mind full of books and boats. Even Mrs. +Higginbotham retired into the background of his mind, and other things +were forgotten entirely. By the time the examination was over Mr. +Binney was rather despondent. He had done fairly well, but not so well +as he had expected. But he remembered a saying of his coach: "If you +think you have done _rather_ badly you may have done well. If you +think you have done _very_ badly, you probably have." He knew he had +not done very badly, so he took heart, dismissed the Little-go from his +mind entirely, and threw himself heart and soul into anticipations of +success in the races. We have already described the gay scene on the +river bank at Ditton Corner in the May races, and one bumping race is +very much like another; so the experiences of Mr. Binney, when he had +steered in the previous Lent races, were not unlike those he underwent +in the Mays. Of course he was now in a much more important position, +and his appearance in the coxswain's seat of the First Trinity boat, as +the First Division rowed down to the starting-point, never failed to +cause a flutter of amusement and inquiry to go through the waiting +crowd at Ditton Corner, which brought a blush to the cheek of Betty +Jermyn, who was generally to be found in a boat or on the bank, in a +position from which she could see everything that was going on. + +She did not waste much time, however, on the contemplation of Mr. +Binney, in his dark blue coat and speckled straw hat, for in the bows +of the boat just in front of him, as they rowed down in reversed order, +was a slim muscular figure whose eyes eagerly sought the crowded ranks +of the onlookers as the crews rested for a minute on their oars before +they went swinging round the bend to their stations. Betty was very +proud of her lover then, for even her inexperienced eyes could see that +the grace and ease with which he rowed were something to be admired, +and poor little Mr. Binney sank still lower in her esteem as he gave +the words of command "Get ready all! Forward all! Are you ready? +Paddle!" which was the signal for his boat to move on. + +On the first night of the races there was no change in the position of +the three head boats. Third Trinity drew up to First at Ditton Corner, +but then fell away and finished at about their distance. First Trinity +gained on the Hall, but never got within a length of them. Mr. Binney +steered with great judgment, and was told that he could not have done +better, but he was disappointed at not catching the head boat and a +little alarmed at Third Trinity having come so close to them during the +early part of the race. + +"They always bustle up like that at first," said Mirrilees, to whom he +confided his tremors. "We shall keep away from them all right, and I +hope we shall catch the Hall to-morrow." + +Mr. Binney was comforted, but on the next night Third not only got to +within a length of them at Grassy Corner but hustled them right up the +Long Reach and very nearly caught them at the railway bridge. This +pursuit seemed, however, to have increased their own pace, for it drove +them right on to Trinity Hall, whom they very nearly succeeded in +bumping. All three boats passed the winning post overlapping, but if +Mr. Binney had made a shot at the head boat he would almost certainly +have missed it, and the boat behind would almost as certainly have run +into them. + +He was warmly congratulated on his presence of mind by the Captain, but +he went home to his rooms by no means at ease, for he now saw plainly +that Third Trinity were just as likely to bump First as First Trinity +were to catch Trinity Hall. He was as keenly anxious as any member of +his crew to go head of the river, and he felt that not only to fail in +that object but to be taken down a place instead would be more than he +could bear. + +It was characteristic of Mr. Binney, as may already have been gathered, +to throw himself heart and soul into what he happened to be doing for +the moment. He had entirely dismissed all thoughts of his late +examination from his mind, and even Mrs. Higginbotham scarcely entered +his thoughts during the whole of the next day, which was a Sunday, as +he walked or sat and went over, in his mind all the events of the last +two races and the probabilities of those that were to come. He was +alone all day, for he now had very few friends, and Sunday was for +Lucius a happy day spent mostly in Betty's charming society. So Mr. +Binney brooded, and by-and-bye dark thoughts began to enter his mind. + +During the progress of Saturday's race, when First Trinity had been +chased all the way up the Long Reach by Third, Mr. Binney had cast one +fleeting glance behind him, and had seen the little indiarubber ball on +the nose of the Third Trinity boat within a few inches of his own +rudder, while the back of his son was swinging regularly and steadily +behind it. An unreasoning anger and jealousy had taken hold of his +mind. It was as much as he could do to prevent himself from shouting +out to Lucius to ask him where he was coming to. It seemed to him an +intolerable thing that he should be prevented from gaining something +that he wanted by the action of his own son, and the more he thought of +it the more intolerable it seemed. He had only to say a word to +Lucius, and Third Trinity would keep away from him, for it was quite +certain that if one man in the boat "sugared" they would have no chance +of making a bump. + +Should he say that word? That was the black thought that held Mr. +Binney in its grip during the whole of that pleasant June Sunday, when +Cambridge was full of life and gaiety, and he only wandered about +lonely and distraught. It would not be sportsman-like behaviour +certainly, but Mr. Binney had not been brought up to be a sportsman, +and the iniquity of the proceeding did not strike him very forcibly. +It also never entered his head that Lucius would disobey his behests if +he brought pressure to bear on him. Lucius was entirely dependent on +his father, and could be threatened with being immediately taken away +from Cambridge if he refused to do what he was told. Mr. Binney had +worried himself into such a fever of desire that he could not bring +himself to look upon his possible defeat with the slightest equanimity. +He would have preferred that his boat should go head of the river on +the merits of its crew, but rather than not go head at all, he was +prepared to take any steps that would bring about what he desired. + +But the morning light happily brought better counsels. He dismissed +his half-formed intention of tampering with a member of the Third +Trinity crew, and went down to the river with renewed hopes. + +The First Trinity men rowed like heroes and got up to the head boat at +Ditton Corner. Third were pressing them hard, but lost a little by bad +steering. + +The shouts from the bank were deafening. Mr. Binney lost his head and +made shot after shot. If he had waited, his crew would have made their +bump. But in the meantime they lost ground, and Third was creeping up +again. + +Mr. Binney turned round in his seat and saw a long sharp point with a +little ball at the end of it dancing gaily past his rudder. Behind it +was the back of his son, swinging regularly. + +"Keep off!" roared Mr. Binney, and made another dab at the Head boat. +Then he turned round again. The little ball was within reach of him, +and behind it was Lucius rowing more vigorously than ever. Mr. Binney +was aware of the ball and the back, and nothing else in all the world. + +He lost his head completely and turned round in his seat, half rising, +pulling his right rudder line, and so crammed his boat right on to the +high bank under the tow-path. + +"Catch a crab, or you go down to-morrow," he shrieked to Lucius. + +The next moment, he could never recall how, he found himself +floundering in the river, in an inextricable confusion of boats, oars, +and shouting, struggling humanity. He could not swim. As he rose to +the surface the blade of an oar hit him on the head. He went down +again, and gave himself over, but when he came up the second time he +felt himself grasped by the collar of his blazer. "Don't kick!" gasped +the voice of his son. "I'll get you out." + +When he was hauled on to the tow-path, panting and dripping, he turned +round on Lucius in a fury: "What do you mean by it? It was your +fault," he shrieked. "You'll go down! you'll go down!" + +Mirrilees, dripping from head to foot, with a slimy weed clinging round +his leg, shouldered his way through the crowd. + +"Hold your tongue, you little beast, or I'll pitch you into the river +again," he said. + +Other things happened to Mr. Binney that evening, of which he does not +now speak--some of them on his way to the First Trinity boat-house, +some of them when he got there, others as he made his way for the last +time to his rooms in Jesus Lane, and others again before he found +himself in the train on his way to London, having shaken the dust of +Cambridge from his feet for ever. + +The next night Third Trinity bumped Trinity Hall and went head of the +river. First Trinity were badly steered by the coxswain who had been +put into Mr. Binney's place, and succumbed to Jesus. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MR. BINNEY DRINKS THE HEALTH OF A "BLUE" + +Nine months had passed and the nipping March winds were raising the +dust and numbing noses and finger-tips in London, while March sunshine +was bringing out daffodils and primroses in the country. It was very +cold on the river Thames between Putney and Mortlake, but the sun was +shining brightly, and a little party on the deck of a steamer, which +was making its way with other similar craft to a station near Barnes +Bridge, seemed to be quite unaffected in spirits by the keen east wind, +for it was the morning of the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. The +party on the steamer were all interested in the prospects of one +University, but the two crews were so equal that none of the sporting +critics had ventured to prophesy the winner in clear and unmistakable +terms, and everybody looked forward to seeing one of the best races +that had been rowed for years. + +Surely that short but erect figure, standing in the bows, with a First +Trinity scarf showing above the collar of its overcoat and the ruddy +glow of health in its cheeks, can belong to no one but Mr. Peter +Binney, late of Trinity College, Cambridge! And that ample comfortable +form on the seat beside him with a fur-lined cloak and a close-fitting +bonnet, well-secured against the wind, must be that of his true and +loyal wife, Martha Binney, relict of the late Matthew Higginbotham. +Here also are the Reverend Dr. Toller with his wife and daughter, for +Mr. Binney still lives in Russell Square, and is once more a valued and +important official in the doctor's congregation. Here also are Mr. and +Mrs. Jermyn with their son and daughter, the latter attended by the +loquacious Dizzy, while John Jermyn sticks close to the side of Nesta +Toller, rather to the dismay of Mrs. Jermyn, who, charitable woman as +she is, has not taken kindly to that young lady's mother, and is not at +all anxious that this acquaintanceship which has been made under Mr. +Binney's hospitable roof should develop into intimacy. There are other +people on the boat which has been chartered by Mr. Binney for the +entertainment of his friends, but we need not concern ourselves with +them. There is one very important person, however, of those with whom +our story has concerned itself, who is not to be found there. Surely +Lucius, and not Dizzy, entertaining as that gentleman's conversation +is, should be found by the side of Betty Jermyn! And by her side +Lucius certainly would be, if duty and honour did not call him +elsewhere. For Lucius has occupied the bow seat of the Cambridge boat +ever since they went into practice, and is even now, as Mr. Binney's +steamer makes its way up the crowded river, preparing to help launch +the frail shell which all those in whom we are interested confidently +hope will soon bear him to victory. + +Mr. and Mrs. Peter Binney are alone for a time in the bows of the +steamer. Let us join them, and listen to their conversation. + +"See what an interest the world takes in this historic contest," Mr. +Binney is saying, waving his hand round towards the river dotted with +craft all moving the same way, and the banks lined with a dense, +holiday-making mass. "It makes you proud of being able to call +yourself a 'Varsity man." + +"Yes, indeed," answers his wife. "And to think of Lucius actually +taking part in it! I feel as proud as anything of the dear boy." + +"So do I," says Mr. Binney heartily. "There was a time when I should +have been jealous of him. But that is all over and done with. I've +put such things behind me. Here am I, settled down comfortably with a +devoted and charming wife. I can take life gratefully now as it comes, +and be just as proud of my boy distinguishing himself as if I had done +it myself." + +"That's the way to look at it, Peter," says Mrs. Binney. "We made a +mistake in thinking it was necessary for you to go to Cambridge in +order to keep young. It's love that keeps the heart young, and so +we've found, haven't we?" + +"Indeed we have, Martha," says Mr. Binney. "Ah! Shall I ever forget +what you did for me in that dark time of illness and remorse? Shall I +ever forget reaching home that morning, racked with anguish at the +thought of the ingratitude I had displayed towards my noble-hearted +son, and the remembrance of the awful punishment I had received for my +rash folly? How I sat indoors brooding over the past, feeling wretched +and miserable, without hope or comfort. How the next day I was too ill +to get up, and by night time was mercifully beyond the reach of my +remorseful thoughts, because of the severe attack of pneumonia, which +the exposure and distress I had gone through had brought on. How I lay +for days, tossing and burning on a couch of misery, and woke at last to +find your cool hand stilling the throbbing of my burning brain, and +your angel voice falling in words of balm on my distressed and fevered +spirit. + +"Yes, dear," says his wife as Mr. Binney pauses for breath, "and then +you soon got better, didn't you?" + +"Shall I ever forget," pursues Mr. Binney more energetically than ever, +"how, when I came again to the realisation of all the many follies I +had committed, you soothed and consoled me, how you brought my boy to +me, and neither of you would listen to my broken cries of repentance, +but gave me calves' foot jelly and grapes instead, and insisted upon +carrying on a cheerful conversation? How you brought me the news of my +success in the Little-go, which was greater than I deserved, but less +than I expected; and finally, Martha, how you made me the happy man I +am to-day by promising to become mine when I had sufficiently +recovered, on the condition that I should leave Cambridge and settle +down once more to my business." + +"Yes, dear, and now we're all comfortable and happy," says Mrs. Binney. +"I made mistakes too, Peter, as well as you, but they're all over now. +And----" + +"Well, Mrs. Binney," interrupts a well-known voice, "this is something +like, eh? I don't know whether you know that if you've got any +microbes or things of that sort in your system a wind like this blows +'em all away." + +"I didn't know it, Mr. Stubbs," says Mrs. Binney, with a pleasant +smile. "But I have no doubt the wind is a very good thing if only it +wouldn't blow all one's hair about one's face so?" + +"Ah, dear lady!" says Dizzy, "you may consider yourself lucky you've +got any hair _to_ be blown about. Now look at the top of _my_ old +pepper-box. I haven't had to use a comb for a year, and I shall soon +be able to part my hair with a towel. You wouldn't like to be like +that, would you?" + +"No," says Mrs. Binney. "But you are very young to be going so bald, +Mr. Stubbs. What do you attribute it to?" + +It appears that Dizzy attributes his growing baldness to hard work and +care combined, but just as he is explaining this to the sympathetic +Mrs. Binney the steamer shuts off steam and is turned and backed with a +good deal of commotion into her berth just by Barnes Bridge. + +There is another hour to wait, but the time goes by somehow. The party +stamp about the deck and huddle themselves up in coats and cloaks to +keep themselves warm, and by-and-bye a muffled roar from a mile away +down the river, warns them that the boats are drawing near. The roar +deepens and increases, and by-and-bye, leaning over the rail of the +steamer, they can see the rhythmic flash of oars in the sunshine, and +nearer and nearer come the two boats, with the Umpire's launch fussing +along just behind them, and the four steamers which follow the race in +the background, the Cambridge steamer--_absit omen!_--some way behind +the rest. Now they are alongside, and a mighty cheer goes up from all +the throats in Mr. Binney's steamer as they pass, and Cambridge is seen +to be leading by half a length. Just here Oxford makes a spurt, and +creeps up level. Cambridge answers it, and on they go under Barnes +Bridge, fighting every inch of the way, as they have done ever since +the starting gun sent them off like greyhounds from the leash, four +miles down the river at Putney. + +Our party spends five minutes of breathless expectation, after boats +and following steamers have passed out of sight, and then another +cheer, louder than the first, goes up as the light blue flag slowly +unfurls itself from the flag-staff at the finish of the course, and the +dark blue is run up underneath it. Then mutually congratulating one +another with every expression of delight and fulfilled expectation, our +party steam away down the river, very well pleased with their +afternoon's amusement. + + +On the night of the boat race Lucius dined with the crews; but while he +was by no means a drag on the hilarity of the proceedings, and may be +said on the whole to have enjoyed himself, he often found himself +wishing that he was at home in Russell Square, where Betty was. He had +declined the invitation he had received to the "Blue Monday" dinner, as +Mr. Binney had announced his intention of exercising his hospitality on +that evening in honour of the distinction Lucius had gained in rowing +in the winning University crew. The company was the same as that which +had graced Mr. Binney's board in the Easter vacation a year before, +with the exception of Miss Tupper, who had not entered the house since +Mrs. Higginbotham had taken her place there, and with the addition of +Mrs. Jermyn, Betty, and John. The Reverend Julius Jermyn had returned +to his parish at Norfolk directly after the boat race on the previous +Saturday. The Tollers would not have been there had not Mrs. Toller +practically asked herself. She was sweetness itself in her intercourse +with Mrs. Binney, but although her claws were sheathed they were not +cut, and were likely to spring out at a moment's warning if she were +offended, and Mrs. Binney had wisely given in at once, and warmly +proffered the invitation which was being fished for. Mrs. Toller could +not come without her husband, and Nesta had been asked in order to fill +up. + +Mr. Binney took in Mrs. Jermyn. It was known that Mrs. Toller would +resent this, but she was placed on her host's left, having been paired +off with Dizzy, to whom she had taken a great fancy, and smiled sweetly +as she took her seat after the Doctor's extempore grace. Lucius was +allowed to take in Betty, and sat between her and her mother. Next to +Betty came Dr. Toller on Mrs. Binney's left. On the other side of the +table was John Jermyn, who had been made happy with Nesta Toller, with +Dizzy and Mrs. Toller next to them. The table was decorated with +Lucius's silver cups, standing on an artistically crinkled square of +light blue silk. The menus, adorned with appropriate aquatic emblems +and the arms of the two Universities, had been ordered expressly from +Messrs. Breedon & Co., and were quite in the orthodox Cambridge style. + +"Very pretty," said Mrs. Toller, examining hers when she had settled +herself. "One might almost imagine oneself transported to Cambridge, +Mr. Stubbs. Quite delightful, is it not?" + +"Yes," said Dizzy, "although to tell you the truth, I'm getting a bit +tired of Cambridge." + +"Oh! but I thought young men never got tired of University life," said +Mrs. Toller. "I have always heard that it was so very attractive. I'm +sure you found it so, didn't you, Mr. Binney?" + +But Mr. Binney was engaged with Mrs. Jermyn and affected not to have +heard the inquiry. + +"It's all very well for a bit," said Dizzy, "but when a fellow gets my +age he wants to settle down and do something." + +"Oh! come," said Mrs. Toller, "you're not so old as all that, Mr. +Stubbs." + +"Not in years perhaps," said Dizzy. "But I assure you that in other +things Methuselah was a babe compared with me. I sometimes sit and +look at fellows amusing themselves, and I say to myself: 'Well, you are +a set o' Jugginses. Call this life! Why, you ought all to be in the +nursery!' However, I've only got one more term and the whole thing +will be over." + +"And what are you going to do when you leave the University?" asked +Mrs. Toller. "Are you still thinking of entering the Church?" + +"Oh! bless me, no," said Dizzy. "That's off. My old father got a bit +frightened, when these Kensit Johnnies began bally-ragging all over the +place. He's a far-sighted old fellow. He saw that if I got shoved +into a comfortable living and then they went and disestablished it or +something, I should get left." + +"Have you ever turned your attention to the Nonconformist ministry?" +inquired Mrs. Toller. + +"No, I can't say I have," replied Dizzy. "Is there much in it?" + +"The incomes made by our leading men are superior to anything in the +Establishment," said Mrs. Toller. "Our people have been taught to +give." + +"_Have_ they?" said Dizzy, with interest. "Well now, that's worth +knowing. I'll put my old governor on to that. If you hear of a soft +thing going, I shall consider it very kind of you if you'll drop me a +line. One's got to keep one's eyes skinned to pick up a living +now-a-days. We're getting ready for the bar now, to tell you the +truth. My old father was dining with a railway fellow down our way, +and he told him that they spent I forget how many thousands a year on +litigation. My governor's a cute old bird, and he thought it wouldn't +be a bad thing if I could pick up a bit of it, so I've been eating +dinners at Lincoln's Inn for the last year or so, and previous poor +dinners they are too. I don't think I shall take to it much. In fact, +the governor's been dropping hints about diplomacy lately. It seems +he's found out from the papers that the people ain't over and above +pleased with the way things have been carried on by the ambassadors +we've got now, and he thinks there might be a chance there in a few +years' time. I don't much care what it is. I suppose I shall keep +going somehow." + +Lucius and Betty were talking quietly together on the other side of the +table. + +"Only two more years," Lucius was saying. "Won't it be ripping, Betty, +when we're settled down in a house of our own?" + +"I don't think we shall ever have a better time than we've had for the +last year at Cambridge," said Betty. "And think of another summer term +there together." + +Lucius's face lit up. "There's nothing like a summer term at Cambridge +when the girl you're in love with is there," he said. "We'll go on the +Backs in a canoe every fine afternoon. I say, Betty, do you remember +that backwater?" + +"Of course I do, you silly boy," said Betty. "I haven't forgiven you +yet for getting me to go up it on false pretences. I'll see that you +don't get me there again though." + +"I'll take particular good care that I do," said Lucius. "I like that +backwater better than any place in Cambridge. Betty, what shall you do +when I've gone down?" + +"I know I shall be very miserable," said Betty, her face falling. "But +don't let us talk about that. We shall have another summer term +together." + +Dr. Toller was making himself pleasant to his hostess. He was an +agreeable man when he succeeded in banishing from his mind "the +Problems that confront the Age," and brought himself down to the level +of those who are content to let the Age worry along in its own way +without making too much noise about it. Mrs. Binney, at the head of +her own table, was an attractive figure in a gown of rich black silk, +festooned with hangings of lace, and smiled engagingly at the Doctor's +conversation. + +"Yes, Doctor," she said, in answer to a remark from him, "I feel I am a +very fortunate woman. I have a comfortable house and the best of +husbands. Peter is consideration itself to all my little whims, and I +assure you I have a great many whims. There was a time when I feared +that this happiness would never come to me. You know all about it and +were very kind to me when I thought it my duty to cut myself off from +all these bright prospects. I am thankful that that trouble passed +away and I was not compelled to spend the rest of my life by myself. +There is the closest confidence between me and my husband. He is of a +sanguine disposition, and I think I may say that any weight of +character I may have attained to--and you know, Doctor, I am a weighty +woman in more ways than one--keeps the balance true. There is not a +happier couple in all Bloomsbury than Peter and myself, and you know +that in marrying him I have gained a son, which is a great joy to me, +for I never had a child of my own. Lucius treats me with the greatest +respect and affection, and I could not be fonder of him than if he were +my own. I am as proud as anyone of his success to-day. Cambridge has +not proved an unmixed source of pleasure to me, as you know, but I have +seldom performed a more agreeable duty than when I arranged this light +blue silk on the table this afternoon with my own hands. Anything that +I can do towards making the dear boy's life happy with the sweet girl +he is going to marry I _shall_ do, as if they were my own children, and +consider myself fortunate in being permitted to do." + +If Mrs. Binney could speak in such terms of gratitude of the new life +she had entered upon, what words could be too strong for her husband to +use in describing his content in having gained as his helpmate that +most estimable woman. She was the theme on which he was expatiating to +Mrs. Jermyn while the conversations already recorded were going on +around him. + +"Nobody knows," Mr. Binney was saying, "what that woman has been to me. +She has stuck by me in sickness and in health, when I was working at +the business to which I was brought up, and when I was trying to do +something that I oughtn't have tried to do. You know all about that, +Elizabeth, so I don't mind mentioning it to you, although it's all over +now. I can't say that I'm altogether sorry to have had the mental +training that University life affords. Nobody can deny that there's a +difference between a man who has been at the University and one who +hasn't. You've had a husband at Oxford and a son at Cambridge and you +know that as well as I do. But still on the whole I acknowledge that +Oxford and Cambridge are for the young fellows. When I saw Lucius +pulling away in such perfect style in that boat on Saturday afternoon I +can tell you it warmed my heart to see it. And Martha feels just the +same as I do about it. She told me so. Nobody knows, Elizabeth, what +a treasure I've found in that woman. And as for Lucius, well, he +didn't take to the idea kindly at first--I don't know that it was to be +expected that he should--but they're as fond of one another as they can +be now, and--and it makes me very happy to see it--very happy." + +The conversation became more general after this, and great were the +merriment and goodwill round Mr. Binney's table. + +When dinner was over and the servants had left the room, Mr. Binney +rose to his feet. There was an expectant silence and a rapping on the +table from all except Lucius, who knew what was coming and wished it +was well over. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. Binney, "I rise to perform a very +pleasant duty, a duty which I am proud of having occasion to perform, a +duty which I am sure all the friends I see gathered round me to-night +will join with me heartily in--in performing, a duty which--which I +will now perform. I rise, ladies and gentlemen, to propose the health +of my son Lucius, who rowed with such conspicuous success in the +Cambridge boat last Saturday." (Murmured but heartfelt applause, +rappings on the table, and "Well rowed, Lucy, well rowed," from Dizzy.) +"We have gathered round our table to-night," continued Mr. Binney, +"four members of the University of Cambridge." ("Five, sir, five," +from Dizzy.) Mr. Binney's puzzled eye searched quickly round the table +and lit upon Betty. "Five, of course," he said, "for have we not a +fair representative of the great college of Newnham in the person of +the dear girl whom I hope soon to welcome as a daughter?" (Renewed +applause.) "We have also a distinguished member of another University, +or rather of two Universities, for my friend Dr. Toller is a Bachelor +of Arts of the University of London and a Doctor of Divinity--_honoris +causâ_--of the University of Joppa, Pa., across the water. And +speaking for the ladies, I am sure there is not one present here +to-night whose sympathies do not go out to the great University to +which I have the honour to belong." (Rappings and subdued acquiescent +murmurs from the ladies with the exception of Mrs. Toller, who thought +Oxford rather more aristocratic.) "I needn't say," pursued Mr. Binney, +"that to become a Blue is to gain the proudest position which Cambridge +can afford, and to become a rowing Blue is perhaps the highest +distinction of all. I have always had occasion to be proud of my son +throughout his school and University career, and I am prouder than ever +of him to-night." (Applause.) "These trophies, ladies and gentlemen, +and this decoration of light blue, are signs of his having +distinguished himself in the highest possible degree in one path of +life--the path which only those who have youth, strength, and health on +their side can hope to tread. In proposing the health of my son +Lucius, I am sure you will join with me in wishing him equal success in +other paths of life in the future, a success which, with the charming +girl who has promised to share it with him, I for one feel confident of +his attaining. Ladies and gentlemen--My son Lucius." + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Binney, by Archibald Marshall + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER BINNEY *** + +***** This file should be named 38694-8.txt or 38694-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/6/9/38694/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Peter Binney + A Novel + +Author: Archibald Marshall + +Release Date: January 27, 2012 [EBook #38694] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER BINNEY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1> +<br /><br /> +PETER BINNEY +</h1> + +<h2> +A NOVEL +</h2> + +<p class="t3"> +<br /> +BY +</p> + +<p class="t2"> +ARCHIBALD MARSHALL +<br /><br /><br /> +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +NEW YORK +<br /> +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY +<br /> +1921 +<br /><br /><br /> +</p> + +<p class="t4"> +PUBLISHED 1921 IN U. S. A. +<br /> +BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. +<br /><br /> +</p> + +<p class="t4"> +First Printing, September, 1921<br /> +Second Printing, October, 1921<br /> +Third Printing, December, 1921<br /> +Fourth Printing, January, 1922<br /> +<br /><br /> +</p> + +<p class="t4"> +PRINTED IN THE USA BY<br /> +The Quinn & Boden Company<br /> +BOOK MANUFACTURERS<br /> +RAHWAY NEW JERSEY<br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +</p> + +<p class="t3"> +TO +<br /> +E. F. BENSON +<br /><br /><br /> +</p> + +<p class="t3b"> +INTRODUCTION +</p> + +<p> +It is over twenty years since "Peter Binney" was first published in +England, and I should be unwilling to offer it to my American readers +at this time of day without some plea for leniency towards a young +man's book, which contains perhaps more than the average number of +crudities to be found in such beginnings. A few of the crudities I +have been able to soften, but if you begin tampering with early work in +the light of maturer knowledge, you are very apt to rub off the bloom +that attaches to it just because it is early work, written with spirit +and freshness, though with little skill. So I have left "Peter Binney" +much as it was, with most of its imperfections on its head, and I trust +some compensating merits. +</p> + +<p> +One merit I know it to possess. It presents a picture of the lighter +side of undergraduate life as it was in Oxford and Cambridge, and as it +still exists, in spite of superficial changes; and that is something +that can only be done by a young man, whose memories are still fresh, +and to whom that life is still important enough to make it the basis of +a story. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +New York, July, 1921 +<br /><br /><br /> +</p> + +<p class="t3b"> +CONTENTS +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="contents"> +CHAPTER +<br /> +I <a href="#chap01">Mr. Binney Makes Up His Mind</a><br /> +II <a href="#chap02">Mr. Binney Interviews One Tutor, and Engages Another</a><br /> +III <a href="#chap03">Lucius Wins a Year's Respite</a><br /> +IV <a href="#chap04">No Help To Be Gained from Mrs. Higginbotham</a><br /> +V <a href="#chap05">Mr. Binney Arrives in Cambridge</a><br /> +VI <a href="#chap06">Lord Blathgowrie Has Something to Say</a><br /> +VII <a href="#chap07">Mr. Binney Speaks at the Union And Makes a Distinguished Acquaintance</a><br /> +VIII <a href="#chap08">The Newnham Girl</a><br /> +IX <a href="#chap09">Mr. Binney Gives a Dinner and Receives a Rebuff</a><br /> +X <a href="#chap10">"The New Court Chronicle"</a><br /> +XI <a href="#chap11">"Put Him in the Fountain"</a><br /> +XII <a href="#chap12">Lucius Makes One Discovery and Mrs. Toller Another</a><br /> +XIII <a href="#chap13">Mr. Binney Gets into Trouble</a><br /> +XIV <a href="#chap14">Nemesis</a><br /> +XV <a href="#chap15">Lucius Finds a Backwater</a><br /> +XVI <a href="#chap16">Third Trinity Makes a Bump</a><br /> +XVII <a href="#chap17">Mr. Binney Drinks the Health of a "Blue"</a><br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER I +</h3> + +<h4> +MR. BINNEY MAKES UP HIS MIND +</h4> + +<p> +"I'll do it to-day," said Peter Binney. +</p> + +<p> +He had been sitting deep in thought ever since he had climbed on to the +omnibus outside his place of business in the Whitechapel Road. As the +vehicle pursued its ponderous way through the crowded streets of the +City, stopping now and again to add to its load of homeward-bound +business men, Mr. Binney sat in his seat, silent and preoccupied, his +eyes on the ground and a thoughtful frown on his face. As it left the +Post Office, full inside and out, and bowled smartly along the broad +asphalted road towards the Viaduct, his face cleared, the light of +determination shone in his eye, and looking up, he said aloud:— +</p> + +<p> +"I'll do it to-day." +</p> + +<p> +His fellow passengers gazed at him in surprise, and a young lady who +sat by his side, heavily fringed and feathered, and laden with a huge +cardboard box, laughed a coarse laugh, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"That's right, guv'nor, don't you put it off no longer." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney had not intended to express his determination aloud, and the +notice his remark had drawn annoyed him. As the young lady was +apparently turning over in her mind further witticisms, he decided to +leave the omnibus and walk the rest of the way to his house in Russell +Square. He made his way slowly down the unsteady stairs, and the young +lady said: +</p> + +<p> +"A good cup o' beef tea's what <i>you</i> want, George, and don't forgit the +'ot-water bottle," and as the omnibus pursued its way, leaving him +walking briskly along the pavement, she leant over the side and called +out, "Git Mariar to put a mustard plaster on yer chest," which made the +people on the omnibus laugh, although Mr. Binney could see no humour in +the remark. +</p> + +<p> +He had come, however, to such a momentous decision during the last +half-hour that by the time he had gone a dozen steps he had ceased to +feel any irritation at the young lady's pleasantries, and walked +smartly along, his brain all on fire with his mighty purpose. +</p> + +<p> +Peter Binney was a small man of about forty-five years of age. His +hair was gingery, and his whiskers decidedly red. He looked rather +like a little bantam-cock as he strutted along, and this was a curious +coincidence, for he had made his fortune by selling poultry food. +</p> + +<p> +Every one has heard of Binney's Food for Poultry. Indeed it would be +quite impossible for anybody who is able to read to be unaware of its +existence, for its fame is blazoned on every hoarding in the United +Kingdom. It was Peter Binney who first conceived the idea of advancing +the cause of art and advertising his wares at the same time. In the +early days, when the future world-famed business was just emerging from +its chrysalis state of a little cornchandler's shop in the +neighbourhood of the East India Docks, he was content to publish a +picture of a simpering young woman in a quilted satin petticoat and +dancing shoes, feeding a number of plethoric hens in a very clean +farmyard. But when the shop became a factory and Mr. Binney's keen +business capacity began to tell, he issued his celebrated series of +"Raphael's Cartoons for the Home," across the sky of each of which ran +the inscription, "Binney's Food for Poultry." After a little time he +published an edition of the "Plays of Shakespeare," in which all the +passages that Mr. Bowdler would have omitted were ingeniously converted +by Mr. Binney into eulogies on his Food for Poultry. Poultry and taste +were alike fed by Mr. Binney, and his business flourished accordingly. +At the age of forty-five he found himself a rich man, with a house in +Russell Square, a family tomb in Kensal Green Cemetery (tenanted at +present only by his wife), and a son who was being educated at Eton. +</p> + +<p> +But to return to the present time and Mr. Binney's purpose. When he +had let himself into the house in Russell Square, he rang the bell and +inquired of the parlour-maid who answered it if Mr. Lucius was at home. +Hearing that he was not, Mr. Binney seemed somewhat relieved, and went +straight up into his dressing-room, where he put on the coat and +trousers generally reserved for Sunday wear, and exchanged his dark tie +for a brilliant red one. Then he looked at his boots, and hesitated. +They were neat enough, but they had lost the sober brilliance of the +morning. There was a row of similar boots freshly blacked under the +dressing-table, but even these must have wanted something in Mr. +Binney's eyes, for after looking at them thoughtfully he shook his +head, and opening the door stole quietly out and upstairs into a room +above his own. It was rather an untidy room and evidently occupied by +a young man of athletic tastes, to judge by the dumb-bells and Indian +clubs, cricket-bats, guncases and fishing-rods that littered the +corners. There was a row of boots and shoes under the dressing-table +here too, and among them a pair of shining patent leathers. Mr. Binney +made his way across the room on tiptoe, and seizing the boots, trees +and all, retreated with them hurriedly to his own room, where he sat +down and put them on. They were a good deal too big, but an extra pair +of winter socks set that right, and when Mr. Binney had buttoned them +he stood up on a chair and surveyed himself in the glass with +considerable satisfaction. "I must get a pair like that," he said. +Then he went downstairs, and putting on his best hat and gloves, and +taking his best umbrella out of the stand, he left the house. +</p> + +<p> +Turning to the left, Mr. Binney made his way towards Woburn Square. If +he had looked the other way as he came out of his house he would have +seen his son Lucius coming towards him not fifty yards off. Lucius was +very unlike his father. He was a good-looking boy of about eighteen, +tall and slim, with blue eyes and a pleasant smiling mouth fringed with +a few fair downy hairs, of which he always spoke collectively. He was +very popular among his school-fellows, and was commonly known by the +name of "Lucy." +</p> + +<p> +"Halloa!" he said to himself as he caught sight of his father coming +down the steps of the parental mansion. "Where's the governor off to, +I wonder! Looks jolly smart, too. S'pose he's going to call on that +old woman. Jove! he's got a pair of shiny boots on. I say, governor, +you're going it! They're a bit too big for you though, my boy. Shall +I give him a hail? Think I won't. He might want me to go and call on +the old tabby with him." +</p> + +<p> +So Lucius let himself into the house and went upstairs. As he passed +his father's room, the door of which was open, he looked in and saw +that the floor was littered with the component parts of a pair of +boot-trees. "Didn't know the governor went in for those luxuries," he +said to himself. Then a sudden thought struck him; he went in and took +up one of the pieces. "Well, I'm hanged!" he said in a tone of deep +annoyance. "They <i>are</i> mine. And he's actually got on my boots. +There's a piece of nerve for you! There'll be a row when you get home, +young man. I really can't stand that, you know." And Lucius went out +of his father's room very much annoyed. +</p> + +<p> +We left Mr. Binney making his way towards Woburn Square. He walked on +until he came to a house with a brightly-painted blue door, where he +rang the bell and asked if Mrs. Higginbotham was at home. The maid +treated him with the subdued cordiality of an old acquaintance and led +him straight upstairs to Mrs. Higginbotham's drawing-room, where her +mistress was discovered warming her feet at a bright fire, and reading +the <i>Christian World</i>. She was a stout, middle-aged lady, and wore a +dress of rich black silk. The room wore an air of warm, solid comfort. +Its decorations would not have satisfied the late Mr. William Morris, +it is true, but as they completely satisfied Mrs. Higginbotham, that +was not a matter of great importance. +</p> + +<p> +"Dear me, Mr. Binney, this is very kind of you," said Mrs. +Higginbotham, rising to greet her visitor. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney shook hands with her and took the chair to which she had +motioned him. He did not speak, but the compressed upper lip and the +thoughtful look with which he regarded Mrs. Higginbotham caused a +slight fluttering in that lady's ample bosom. With a woman's instinct +she immediately knew as surely as if he had already told her what he +had come to say. "He's going to do it to-day," she said to herself, +and true to the tactics of her sex she set herself at once to ward off +the critical moment as long as possible. She plunged into conversation +of the sprightly religious order, for Mrs. Higginbotham was a good +woman and could talk by the hour together of preachers and movements +and causes, in which conversation Mr. Binney was quite capable of +holding his own, for he and Mrs. Higginbotham sat under the same +preacher and held the same theological views. There was another point +in common between them, and while Mrs. Higginbotham is struggling to +maintain a bright and lively conversation, to which Mr. Binney replies +only by terse monosyllables, there will be time to explain what this +was. +</p> + +<p> +Both Mr. Binney and Mrs. Higginbotham had a soul above their +surroundings. In the case of Mr. Binney this has already been +indicated by the way in which, while conducting his business on the +most approved lines of commercial progress, he essayed to import into +it something better and nobler than the mere pushing of his wares and +the piling up of a fortune. Those cartoons from Raphael had infused a +love of art into many humble homes, and not a few minds had been +enriched by the perusal of Binney's Shakespeare (a play given away with +every sack of his food for poultry), to such an extent that the +deterioration of eyesight brought about by the quality of paper and +print with which those masterpieces were issued was a very small matter +in consideration of the mental enlightenment which had been diffused +throughout the country. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham's aspirations were not of so educational a character. +Her literary yearnings were satisfied by the weekly appearance of the +<i>Family Herald Supplement</i>, to which event she looked forward regularly +with great pleasure. That excellent periodical never made its +appearance in her drawing-room, although sundry works of fiction from +the lending library round the corner, dealing with the habits and +customs of the aristocracy, did. Mrs. Higginbotham's father had been a +draper in a small way of business, and her husband, beginning life in +her father's shop, by the time he died had become a draper in a very +large way. Wealth and luxury had been Mrs. Higginbotham's lot for many +years, but what she yearned for was the larger, freer life led by those +happy beings of whom she read in her chosen novels. To be able to look +upon a lord without blinking; to be able to look upon lords every day +of your life; to have it said in a newspaper, "I saw Mrs. 'Fluffy' +Higginbotham" (Fluffy had been the term of endearment enjoyed by the +late Mr. Higginbotham) "sitting under the Achilles Statue in a +plum-coloured gown with lettuce-green <i>revers</i>;" to have cards of +invitation pouring in, every other one illuminated by a title; to +regard the London season as something more than the time of year when +the days were getting longer and it would soon be time to think about +going to the seaside—comfortable as Mrs. Higginbotham's circumstances +were, her life had been singularly devoid of these delights. +</p> + +<p> +And this was not all. Mrs. Higginbotham was romantic. She revelled in +a love-story. She adored the Apollo-like heroes of her favourite +fiction with an ungrudging wealth of admiration, and she envied hardly +less the blushing heroines on whom they lavished the stores of their +magnificent affections. Mrs. Higginbotham felt that it ought to be the +lot of every girl to be a blushing heroine at one time of her life. +She felt that she herself had been unjustly deprived of that privilege, +although she had been an attractive girl, and, if she read the +expression in Peter Binney's eyes rightly, was attractive still. The +late Mr. Higginbotham had been a good husband to her, but his actual +proposal had been of the "Here I am—Take me if you like—If you don't +there are plenty that will, and only too glad to get the chance" order. +She <i>had</i> taken him, but he had never satisfied the romantic cravings +of her nature. She, on her part, had been a good wife to him, but so +far as she was aware he had never, from first to last, regarded her as +a heroine, or if he had he had never shown it. +</p> + +<p> +Would Peter Binney do more? Was it too late to hope that a whiff of +the fragrant breezes of romance might yet blow upon her? Mrs. +Higginbotham scarcely knew. There was a something in the little man +that inclined her to think that he would not be averse to dally in the +Indian summer of a romantic courtship if she made it quite plain to him +that that was what she required; and there was a something, in spite of +his diminutive stature and the byegone forty-five years of his +successful life, in the fire of his eye and in his erect and proud +bearing, that whispered to Mrs. Higginbotham's heart that she might, by +guarding the sensation with extreme care, bring herself to regard him +as a very good substitute for the youthful adorer who it was almost too +much to hope would come forward at this time of day. +</p> + +<p> +While these questions passed through her mind, Mrs. Higginbotham went +on talking, and Mr. Binney, answering her without knowing in the least +what she was talking about, mentally braced himself up for the proposal +he was about to make. At last he broke into the middle of one of Mrs. +Higginbotham's sentences, and said in a firm and resolute voice, "Mrs. +Higginbotham, ma'am." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham saw that the time had come, and gave up the struggle. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Mr. Binney?" she said in as cool a tone as she could muster. +</p> + +<p> +"I am not so young as I was, ma'am," said Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +"We are none of us that," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "At least not people +at our time of life." +</p> + +<p> +"You have no reason to complain, ma'am," said Mr. Binney gallantly. +</p> + +<p> +"My heart is young," said Mrs. Higginbotham, greatly pleased at the +compliment, "and if I am not very much mistaken, yours is also." +</p> + +<p> +"I hope it is," said Mr. Binney, greatly pleased in his turn; "and on +that account I have a proposal to make to you, ma'am, which I hope you +will consider favourably." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm sure I shall do that, whatever it is," said Mrs. Higginbotham +comfortably. +</p> + +<p> +"I hope so," said Mr. Binney again. "The fact is, ma'am, that I have +long regarded you with feelings of interest, which have in the course +of time developed into feelings of affection. I can scarcely hope that +those feelings are returned, but I should wish to ask, ma'am, if there +is any chance in the near or distant future that they might be." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Mr. Binney!" exclaimed Mrs. Higginbotham with a lively +recollection of the heroines of fiction. "This is so sudden." +</p> + +<p> +"It is, ma'am," said Mr. Binney. "I am aware of that. This sort of +thing <i>must</i> be sudden at some time or another, if it is to result in +bus—I mean if anything is to come of it. I don't wish to press you +for an answer yet. I merely wish to lay my ideas before you. I might +say that I wish to marry again in order to obtain those advantages +which—er—which <i>come</i> from marrying again. I might say that I want +an agreeable companion to sit at the head of my table, to entertain me +with her society in my leisure hours, and to act in the capacity of +mother to my only son. I do want that, but that is not all. I have +worked hard all my life, ma'am, and am now a comparatively rich man. +But I have had very little pleasure in my life. I married my first +wife to please <i>her</i>. I want to marry my second to please <i>myself</i>. +And I want above all to impart into the affair some of +that—er—<i>glamour</i>, which, in my opinion, should envelop all +courtship. I therefore come to you, ma'am, an agreeable and charming +woman, and ask you, not to accept me as a man of good position able to +offer you a comfortable home, which I am aware you have already, but as +a man who, although no longer young, is younger than a good many +people, and who loves you for yourself alone, and would like to take an +opportunity of proving it." +</p> + +<p> +Could Mrs. Higginbotham believe her ears? If Peter Binney had asked +her to marry him in the way he had suggested, and scouted, she would +have accepted him with a sigh for lost illusions now no longer tenable. +But it really seemed as if that romance for which the poor lady had so +longed was going to be opened up for her, and an ardent swain, in the +person of Peter Binney, Manufacturer of Poultry Food, was ready to +throw himself at her feet and plead for her favour. Mrs. Higginbotham +could scarcely yet grasp the happiness that seemed to be dawning on her +horizon. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you really love me for myself, Mr. Binney?" she asked with +faltering lips. +</p> + +<p> +"Say Peter," corrected Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +"Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham submissively, with a delicious thrill. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I do," said that gentleman. "But I don't want you to accept me +in a hurry, you know," he added hastily. "I want you to try me, to +prove me, to see what I'm made of." He slapped his little breast with +a determined air, and looked round the room as if in search of some +object by means of which he might be proved on the spot. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham might have replied that she knew him tolerably well +already, having met him with some frequency for the last twenty years. +But his attitude caused her such a degree of pleasure that she was by +no means prepared to spoil the sensation by reminding him of that fact. +At the same time she was a little nervous and flurried. She had all +the will in the world to prove him, but she didn't quite know how to +set about it. If there had been a crusade handy she might have sent +him off to that, but she could think of no nineteenth century +substitute on the spur of the moment. Mr. Binney had been a Volunteer +in his youth, as he had often told her, but he was one no longer, so +she could not set him to watch his accoutrements all night in a church. +Besides, Mr. Binney went to chapel, and the minister wouldn't have +liked it. She didn't really quite know what he did want, but +fortunately Mr. Binney himself came to the rescue and made himself a +little clearer. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, Mrs. Higginbotham," he began. "By-the-bye, may I call you +Martha?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, do," said Mrs. Higginbotham. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, my dear Martha," began Mr. Binney again, "what you have got to do +is to tell me what in your opinion the behaviour of an ideal lover +should be, and what <i>I</i> have got to do is to endeavour to the best of +my ability to act up to your opinion." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Peter," began Mrs. Higginbotham, "I must confess that I have +always wished that I had had in my youth a devoted lover who should be +something of a hero." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so, quite so," assented Mr. Binney with an energetic nod. "I +shall do my best to be that, my very best." +</p> + +<p> +"One," continued Mrs. Higginbotham, "whom I could admire +for—er—manliness and—er—light-heartedness, and—er—beauty, both of +form and feature." +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly so," nodded her wooer. +</p> + +<p> +"One who would regard me as the most beautiful—er—female in the +world; not that I should be that, of course, but I should like him to +think so." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course, of course," said Mr. Binney. "Quite natural." +</p> + +<p> +"And who would try to make little opportunities of meeting me, and +being where I was." +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly," said Mr. Binney, who had been admitted into Mrs. +Higginbotham's house any time these last twenty years whenever he liked +to present himself. +</p> + +<p> +"Whose heart would beat quicker when he <i>did</i> see me, and who would be +quite rewarded for any trouble he might have taken over the matter <i>by</i> +seeing me." +</p> + +<p> +"I quite see, ma'am, I quite see," said Mr. Binney. "The truth of it +is, you want to renew your youth, I take it. Not that it requires much +renewing," he added gallantly. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Peter!" exclaimed Mrs. Higginbotham coyly. +</p> + +<p> +"And I want to renew <i>my</i> youth, Martha," continued Mr. Binney with +some fervour. "I've worked very hard ever since I was a boy, as you +know, and I never had the fun that I should like to have had, or that +the young fellows I see about me now have—my son, for instance." +</p> + +<p> +"Dear boy," murmured Mrs. Higginbotham. +</p> + +<p> +"Dear boy, certainly," acquiesced Mr. Binney, "and <i>lucky</i> boy, too, +Martha. Look what I've done for that boy. I've sent him to Eton, +where <i>I</i> never had a chance of going, or anywhere like it. Why, +Martha, life is one continuous round of pleasure at Eton. And now he +is going to Cambridge. <i>There's</i> a place for you! Why, I assure you, +you could hardly believe the fun that young fellows have at a place +like Cambridge." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I can. I've read books about it," said Mrs. Higginbotham, "and I +had a nephew there once who used to tell me things. Ah, Mr. Binney, if +I were only what I used to be twenty years ago, and you were at +Cambridge!" +</p> + +<p> +"Pooh, Martha," said Mr. Binney. "You weren't half so attractive as +you are now, I'll be bound. And as for me, though I <i>am</i> forty-five, +I'm as active as ever and could hold up my head with the best of them." +</p> + +<p> +"I know you could, Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, Martha, I've got something in my mind," said Mr. Binney. "It's +been there for some time, but I haven't liked to mention it to you +because I was afraid—well, I didn't know how you might take it. But +really, you've taken what I <i>have</i> said in such a way as—as to be +extremely gratifying to me, and upon my word I don't believe you'll +think my idea so very absurd after all." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham looked at him with deep interest depicted in her face. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney squared himself and sat up in his chair. "Lucius is going +to Cambridge in October," he said. "Now what do you say to my going +with him?" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham's look of interest gradually brightened into one of +delighted agreement. "Oh, Peter," she said, "if you only could! Isn't +it too late?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not a bit," said Mr. Binney. "There's no limit of age. I found that +out long ago. I could go up there and be treated in all respects as if +I was five-and-twenty years younger than I am. And do you know, +Martha," added the little man confidentially, "such is my freshness of +mind that I believe in time I should come to believe that I <i>was</i> +five-and-twenty years younger." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham looked at him in speechless admiration. "It would be +lovely," she said. "What an interest I should take in your doings, +Peter!" +</p> + +<p> +This speech was as a spark to the tinder of Mr. Binney's inclinations. +"If you think about it like that, Martha, I'll do it," he cried +delightedly. "And now I must be getting home. I'll have a talk to +Lucius about it to-night, and come and tell you what I have decided +to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney took a tender farewell of Mrs. Higginbotham, and left her to +spend the evening in roseate dreams of returning youth and a wider +horizon than that visible from her windows in Woburn Square. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap02"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER II +</h3> + +<h4> +MR. BINNEY INTERVIEWS ONE TUTOR AND ENGAGES ANOTHER +</h4> + +<p> +Mr. Binney and his son sat over their wine that evening in the +seclusion of the dining-room in Russell Square. Mr. Binney had been +somewhat silent during dinner, thinking over the disclosure he was +about to make. Somehow, now that it came to the point, he felt a +certain diffidence in mentioning it. Lucius also had something to say, +but waited until the servants were out of the room. +</p> + +<p> +"I say, father," he said, when they were left alone, "I've ordered a +new pair of patent leather boots from Peal's, and asked them to send +the bill in to you." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney, immersed in his thoughts, had forgotten the occurrence of +the afternoon, or he would not have rushed with such haste to his own +destruction. "Bill into me, Lucius?" he exclaimed angrily. "What do +you mean? You've got your own allowance, and a very handsome one it +is. I'm not going to pay your bills for you besides. If it comes into +me I shall tear it up." +</p> + +<p> +"You've got your own boots," retorted Lucius, "and very handsome ones +they are. If you take a fancy to mine I don't mind you wearing them a +bit, only I haven't got enough for us both, so I thought you wouldn't +mind my getting another pair, as I can't do without." +</p> + +<p> +"H'm! Ah! yes!" said Mr. Binney, a trifle confused. "No, I don't mind +really, my boy, though I don't think there are many fathers who would +take it like that." +</p> + +<p> +"There aren't many fathers who would take their sons' boots," said +Lucius. "By the way, father, talking about allowances, what allowance +are you going to make me at Cambridge?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, Cambridge!" echoed Mr. Binney, as if that ancient seat of learning +had just been brought to his notice for the first time. "Yes, we must +talk about Cambridge." +</p> + +<p> +"I should like to have it settled before I go back to Eton for my last +half, if you don't mind," said Lucius. "A lot of my friends are going +up, and we shall be sure to be talking over it a good deal. I should +like to know what I shall be able to do and what I shan't." +</p> + +<p> +"You ought to think yourself very lucky to be going to Cambridge at +all," said Mr. Binney with a shake of the head. "I never had the +chance of going to Cambridge when I was a young fellow." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I daresay it's a jolly enough place," said Lucius, "although I +shall be sorry to leave Eton. Still, it isn't all fun, you know, +father. There's a certain amount of work to be done." +</p> + +<p> +"Work! Of course there is," said Mr. Binney. "But <i>what</i> work! Think +of being able to carry on your education till you're twenty-two or +thereabouts. It's a grand thing, education. I never had any myself, +at least not what <i>you</i> would call education, although I flatter myself +I know as much as most people." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, yes, father," said Lucius. "Why, bless me, you've edited the text +of Shakespeare." +</p> + +<p> +"H'm, yes," said Mr. Binney, on whom a certain amount of adverse +comment had bred a measure of distrust in this feat. He took a gulp of +port. "We've always been friends, my boy, you and I, haven't we?" he +continued rather nervously. +</p> + +<p> +"Friends, father?" said Lucius. "Why, of course. I should think so." +</p> + +<p> +"You might, perhaps, almost say that we are more like brothers than +father and son," pursued Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know that I should go quite so far as that," said Lucius. +"But we always get on very well together, don't we?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that is what I meant," said Mr. Binney. "Now I've got an idea, +which may be a little unusual." ("Not at all," murmured Lucius +politely.) "But I hope you'll fall in with it. At least when I say, I +hope, it doesn't matter a fig whether you do or not. I'm not going to +be dictated to by my son, though he has been to a public school and I +haven't. Who sent him there?" +</p> + +<p> +"Why, you did, of course, father," said Lucius. "I don't want to +dictate to you. What is your idea? That I shall go into the business +when I come down from Cambridge?" +</p> + +<p> +"That you'll do, of course," said Mr. Binney. "I hope you know on +which side your bread's buttered, and who buttered it for you. No, my +idea is about myself. I have worked very hard until now, but I haven't +had the time for self-improvement that I should have liked. Now, what +I propose to do is to take three years holiday off business and go up +to Cambridge with you in October. What do you think of that?" +</p> + +<p> +What Lucius thought of it might have been accurately gathered from the +length of his face. All power of speech seemed to have left him. He +could only sit with open mouth staring at his father, and this +demeanour instantly set up the comb of that peppery little bantam. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, well, what have you got to say? Why don't you speak?" he cried, +with some heat. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly Lucius lay back in his chair, and gave vent to a loud, but +entirely mirthless, peal of laughter. "That's a good joke, father," he +said. "Gad! you <i>are</i> a ripper. Won't the fellows laugh when I tell +'em?" +</p> + +<p> +This behaviour seemed to have a very ill effect on the circulation of +Mr. Binney's blood, which flew into his head to such an extent that his +face got as red as a tomato. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you mean, sir?" he cried angrily. "It isn't a joke at all. +Why should the fellows laugh, I should like to know? I tell you what +it is, sir, you're ashamed of your father, you ungrateful young snob. +Where would you have been, I should like to know, if I hadn't made my +fortune and sacrificed myself to give you a good education? Sweeping a +shop, I dare say, or a clerk on ten shillings a week. That's what you +would have been, my fine fellow, and a good deal too good for you, too, +you idle young——" +</p> + +<p> +"Steady on, father," interposed Lucius, now quite serious again. "I'm +not ashamed of you, you know that quite well—there's nothing to be +ashamed of—but I didn't think you could mean it, really. You can't +mean it, you know, why it's ridic—it's out of the question." +</p> + +<p> +"<i>Why</i> is it out of the question, sir?" asked Mr. Binney. "<i>Why</i> is it +out of the question?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well," said Lucius, "look what a precious pair of fools we shall look." +</p> + +<p> +"<i>You</i> may, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I dare say you will. I can't help +your looking anything you please. But I flatter myself there's nothing +particularly foolish looking about me, is there? <i>Is</i> there, I say?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no, nothing at all," Lucius made haste to reply, "but I should +think there would be if you went up to Cambridge as an +undergraduate—something precious foolish. I suppose you mean to take +a house there, though, or something, and enter at some small college +where they won't worry you." +</p> + +<p> +"I intend to do nothing of the sort, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I shall +enter myself at Trinity. It is, I believe, the best college at +Cambridge. You chose it yourself. And I have no intention of taking a +house. I shall live in the college, and comport myself in the same way +as the steady young men with whom I, and you, too, I hope, expect to +associate." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Lord!" groaned Lucius. "Are we to go about together as steady +young men? Well, you can't get into Trinity, you know, that's one +comfort. The entrance examination is over and you couldn't pass it if +it wasn't." +</p> + +<p> +"Couldn't pass it, sir! You little know either your father's ability +or determination. And it is not over. There is another in October, +for which I shall present myself." +</p> + +<p> +"You'll have your work cut out for you to get ready for it. I suppose +you'll go to school for a term. I should go to Johnson's at Margate if +I were you, where you sent me—you see you're just over age for a +public school—they'll take you as a parlour-boarder, and I should +think you might get the good-conduct prize if you're careful." +</p> + +<p> +"That's right, sir," said Peter bitterly. "Pour scorn on your own +father, who has given you all the advantages you ever had. Of course, +you're a gentleman. You've been to Eton and you're going to Trinity. +Yet you grudge me having my little bit of education, though I pay for +both." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, blow the education, father. Why don't you stew up for London +University, and live comfortably at home?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because I choose to 'stew up' for Cambridge University, sir, and let +that be an end of the matter. You'll find there will only be one of us +there if you're not precious careful, and it won't be you." +</p> + +<p> +Poor Lucius went to bed that night with a heavy heart. He had rowed +for one year in the Eton eight, and wore with great satisfaction a +flannel coat of light blue. He had hitherto looked forward with +pleasure to his career at Cambridge, with the hope of wearing another +light blue coat of a slightly different cut and shade of colour in the +course of it. Now a dark cloud had arisen to obscure the happy azure +of his mental horizon. +</p> + +<p> +"If he's going to be such a fool as to go up," he said to himself as he +undressed, "I'm hanged if <i>I</i> will. I'll go to Oxford instead, +although all the chaps I know best are going to the other shop, and I +shan't like it half as well." +</p> + +<p> +He broached this proposition to his father the next morning at +breakfast, hoping all the time that he had given up his intention. But +Mr. Binney was more than ever confirmed in it, having spent a happy +night in dreams of glorious youthful feats to be laid at the feet of +the fair Mrs. Higginbotham; and Lucius's idea was received so badly +that he relinquished it at once, and made up his mind ruefully that he +should either have to go to Cambridge with his father as his close +companion, or not go at all. He went back to Eton the next day with +all his pleasure in the coming half spoilt by the dark fate that was +hanging over him, his only consolation being the recollection of the +difficulty of the Trinity entrance examination, which it had taken him +all his time to get through, although his work for the last ten years +had led directly up to it. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course he can't do the work by October," he said to himself. "He +doesn't know a word of Greek and only about three of Latin." +</p> + +<p> +And this consolation had to suffice him, for he knew his father well +enough to realise that if he had made up his mind to do this thing, and +it was in him to do it, do it he would. Moreover, on the day he had +left Russell Square for Eton he had seen a letter on the hall-table +addressed in his father's handwriting to the tutor on whose side he +himself was entered at Trinity, and blushed to think of what it +contained. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius's tutor, who was the most popular in the college, wrote to say +that his own side was full, but that his colleague, Mr. Rimington, +still had a few vacancies. So Peter wrote to Mr. Rimington and +received a reply requesting him to go up to Cambridge for a personal +interview. +</p> + +<p> +Peter travelled to Cambridge the same evening and put up at the "Bull." +After dinner he went out to make his first acquaintance with a +University town. It was a lovely April evening. The deep violet of +the twilight sky revealed the irregular roofs and towers of the old +buildings. There was a half foreign air about the clean paved streets +with the open rivulets running along the pavements. Peter walked up +King's Parade and viewed with awe the pile of the famous chapel of +King's, past the University Library and the Senate House, and the +modern pretentious façade of Caius College, conceived and executed in +the best Insurance office style of architecture, and into the narrow, +noisy little Trinity Street. The streets were full of men in caps and +gowns, and a few still in flannels and straw hats. Mr. Binney wondered +how these latter could walk along so unconcernedly when they might at +any corner run straight into the arms of a perambulating Proctor. He +was so imbued with the idea of himself as a budding undergraduate that +he half expected to be taken for one, and felt quite nervous when he +did meet a Proctor a little later on, lest he should be asked for his +name and college. He was a little disappointed when that functionary +passed him without comment, but so reverential were his feelings +towards one who held such high office in the University that he could +not refrain from taking off his hat to him, a salute which the Proctor +gravely returned, much to Mr. Binney's gratification. He would perhaps +have been less gratified if he had known that the great man, who was +not accustomed to receiving respectful greetings from middle-aged +gentlemen, took him for a subservient tradesman whose face he happened +to have forgotten. +</p> + +<p> +When Mr. Binney turned into the open space in front of Trinity College +and passed through the noble gateway into the Great Court, his heart +swelled with pride as he stood and looked round him. The twilight had +deepened into night, and the court lay quiet and spacious under the +stars. Opposite to him stood the hall, its painted windows shining +brightly through the dusk. To its right lay the Master's lodge, which +Mr. Binney had been told was also a royal palace, and in front of it +plashed the fountain underneath its graceful canopy of stone. To his +right was the dark mass of the closed chapel, and all round the court +stretched the long low buildings with their lighted windows and busy +staircases, their modest regularity broken up by the three gate towers, +the hall, the lodge, and the chapel. A little group of chatty dons +came towards him from the combination room, across the sacred grass, +one of them in all the bravery of a scarlet gown, and passed out +through the gate. A porter touched his hat to them and Mr. Binney felt +that he could have done the same with pleasure. Towards the +undergraduates who went to and fro in the court, along the flagged +pathways, his feelings were less reverential, but more curious, for he +hoped some day to be one of them. What a proud thing it would be to +walk on these very stones in a square cap and a blue gown and feel that +one had a share in all the ancient surrounding glories. He walked +slowly across the court, and up the steps of the hall. He stopped to +read the college notices in the glass-covered cases which hang in the +passage between the kitchen and buttery hatches on the one side, and +the carved screen which gives access to the hall itself, through heavy +swing doors, on the other. A crowd of waiters in their shirt-sleeves +were busy between the two clearing away the remains of the feast. Mr. +Binney looked into the hall which was now nearly ready to be shut up +for the night. The massive boards and benches of polished oak ran up +to the daïs in which were the two long tables where the dons sit at +their dinner long after the undergraduates have finished and left them +to their grandeur. The pictures of bygone worthies whom their college +delights to honour looked down on him solemnly from the walls. Behind +him was the beautiful screen with the gallery above, from which the +panels are removed on state occasions, when a bright array of fair +visitors looks down on the "animals feeding." The lights were going +out now, and the high-pitched roof with its many rafters was fading +into dimness. Mr. Binney turned with a sigh and went out, while a +servant locked the door and left the great hall to its solitude, with +the moonlight streaming in through the blazoned windows and the wakeful +eyes of the departed worthies watching through the night. +</p> + +<p> +The next morning Mr. Binney called on Mr. Rimington. He had to sit for +a quarter of an hour in the Tutor's ante-room, where half-a-dozen +undergraduates were awaiting their turn for admittance, looking over +the bound volumes of <i>Punch</i> which were laid on the table for their +amusement. Two of them were talking, and Mr. Binney listened with open +ears to their conversation which was "shoppy" in the extreme, and all +the more interesting to him on that account. His appearance caused no +surprise, for fathers do sometimes visit their son's Tutors, but Mr. +Binney thought that every one present would know what he had come for, +and felt a little shy. +</p> + +<p> +He was shown presently into the inner room, a handsome one with a +beautiful ceiling, and was received very kindly by Mr. Rimington, who, +however, seemed a little nervous. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know, Mr. Binney," he said, with some hesitation, "whether I +quite understood your letter." (Here he took Mr. Binney's application +from an orderly little pile on his desk.) "It seemed to mean that you +wished to enter yourself as an undergraduate of the college." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney sat on a chair before the Tutor fumbling his hat between his +knees. "Certainly, sir," he said, "that is what I meant." +</p> + +<p> +"There is an undergraduate of your name already entered, I believe, on +Mr. Segrave's side?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, my boy Lucius. He passed the certificate examination last month." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so. We are very glad to have him here. We hope he may row in +the boat and help us to beat Oxford." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney was surprised to find a don taking an interest in such a +frivolous affair as a boat-race, but it put him a little more at his +ease. +</p> + +<p> +"There is nothing to prevent a man of my age entering at the +University, I suppose?" he inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"No," said Mr. Rimington with some hesitation, "not from our point of +view. But have you thought what it means, Mr. Binney? It is a +little—er—unusual for father and son to be undergraduate members of +the same college at the same time. Our rules are not at all irksome +for a young man—in fact, some people think we allow too much freedom, +although we find that we get on better by not drawing the rein so tight +as they do at some other colleges—but such as they are we could not +relax them, and in your case they might very well prove to be irksome." +</p> + +<p> +"Not at all," said Mr. Binney, "not at all. I am prepared to take the +rough with the smooth, and I can keep rules, if they are sensible +rules, as well as the young fellows." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington laughed nervously. "May I ask your reason for wanting to +come up to Cambridge so—so late in life?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"I have a passion for education, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I left school +at the age of fourteen, and have worked hard at my business ever since. +But money-making isn't the sole interest in life—besides I have got as +much money as I want. I wish to regain some of the lost opportunities +of youth." +</p> + +<p> +"Have you kept up your classical studies at all since you left school?" +asked the Tutor. +</p> + +<p> +"I never learnt any classics, sir," answered Mr. Binney airily; "that +has all to come. They didn't consider that Latin and Greek prepared us +for the business of life when I was a boy." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! then I am afraid it is not of the slightest use your attempting to +enter for our examination," said the Tutor, with a visible shade of +relief overspreading his face, "it would take you years to come up to +the standard we require." +</p> + +<p> +"That is <i>my</i> affair, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I shall not only attempt +it, I shall succeed. I have ability and determination." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington looked annoyed. "I think you will find you are +mistaken," he said. "However, as you say, that is your affair and not +mine. But, apart from that, I am not sure, Mr. Binney—I speak quite +openly—that it is the kindest course you could take, as far as your +son is concerned, to enter at the same college. He comes to us with a +very good character, and we hope he will do us credit. But it is +likely to go against him—I mean it will hardly be giving him a fair +chance with the other men of the college to be constantly under your +supervision. A University education, you know, Mr. Binney, is a +valuable training for a young man, because he begins to learn to stand +alone, while he is not left entirely alone. Your son would lose that +advantage, whatever else he might gain, if you were to be constantly +with him." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney straightened himself up. Mr. Rimington's opposition roused +his fighting business instincts, which prompted him to take every +opportunity of gaining an advantage. "That again is a matter for me to +decide, sir," he said. "Lucius and I are very good friends and +understand one another thoroughly. I have given him advantages of +education that I never had, but when I put my foot down he has to obey. +He knows that by this time. We will leave him out of the question, if +you please." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington again looked annoyed. +</p> + +<p> +"If you are determined to come up for entrance to this college," he +said, "and succeed in passing the necessary test, which, I warn you, +will be a harder matter than you imagine, you would find yourself +compelled to associate with men of very immature views, Mr. Binney." +</p> + +<p> +"I am not afraid of that," said Mr. Binney. "In fact I shall enjoy it. +I have preserved my youth and can take the young fellows on their own +ground and beat 'em." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington passed his hand over his mouth. "Then I had better give +you the necessary papers," he said. "You must send us a certificate of +good conduct, signed by a clergyman who has known you for three years." +</p> + +<p> +"My pastor, the celebrated Dr. Toller, under whose ministrations I have +sat for the last twenty years would do, I suppose," said Mr. Binney. +"I am a Baptist." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, certainly," said the Tutor. "Then there is the certificate of +birth. And this paper will tell you all about the subjects for +examination. I should advise you to engage a private coach. You are +too late, of course, for the first examination, but——" +</p> + +<p> +"There is another in October," interrupted Mr. Binney. "I know. I +shall present myself for that." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I will wish you good-morning, Mr. Binney," said the Tutor. "You +will excuse me, but I have a good many pupils to see." Mr. Rimington +summoned up his usual amiable smile and took leave of Mr. Binney with a +warm grasp of the hand; and Mr. Binney went out through the ante-room, +where the waiting crowd had swelled to unusual proportions, and +clattered down the oak staircase into the court, hugging his precious +sheaf of papers. +</p> + +<p> +In the Combination Room, that evening, Mr. Rimington and Mr. Segrave +discussed Mr. Binney over their wine. +</p> + +<p> +"I did my best to dissuade him," said Mr. Rimington. "It is very hard +lines on the boy." +</p> + +<p> +"He is a nice boy," said the other. "Wargrave"—this was Lucius's +house-master at Eton—"says he is one of the best boys he has in his +house; not at all brilliant, but of excellent character and a +first-rate oar—just the sort of freshman we want, as we can't expect +them all to be scholars. I'm afraid it will spoil his life here if his +father insists upon inflicting himself on us. What sort of a man is +he?" +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington laughed. He would have liked to say, "Just a cocky +little tradesman," but he was a charitable man. "If I were the boy," +he said, "I would rather have him in London than at Cambridge. But I +don't think we shall see him at Cambridge. He left school thirty years +ago and has never learnt either Latin or Greek, or indeed anything that +we want, excepting, perhaps, arithmetic, and we don't want much of +that. Yet he expects us to admit him in October." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, well then, we may set our minds at rest," said Mr. Segrave. "But +it's a curious idea altogether." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney had got back to Russell Square by that time and was just +then engaged in writing out an advertisement for a resident tutor. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap03"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER III +</h3> + +<h4> +LUCIUS WINS A YEAR'S RESPITE +</h4> + +<p> +A week after Mr. Binney's visit to Cambridge, he wrote the following +letter to his son:— +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +"MY DEAR Lucius,—Yours of 29th ult. to hand. I note you are getting +on with your work and enjoying yourself. I have now relinquished my +attendance at the office, and have left the management in Mr. Walton's +hands, merely dropping in for an hour or two once a week to see how +things are going. As far as I can see he will carry on the business +well during my three years' absence, and at the end of that time I +shall take the reins again and you will begin work there. If all goes +well I shall take you into partnership a year after that, by which time +you ought to have fully mastered the details. +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +"<i>Re</i> work for Trinity Entrance Examination. +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +"I have started on above, having engaged a private coach. I had 430 +answers to my application. My choice fell on a gentleman named +Minshull, a Peterhouse man who dwells in the vicinity. He took his +degree only last year and expects to enter the Church shortly. He +comes every morning at nine o'clock and we work till one. He lunches +with me, after which we take a walk in the Park or elsewhere, returning +for tea and another two hours' work. Then Minshull leaves me, and +after a light dinner I do preparation for him for another two hours and +then to bed. On Saturday we knock off at one, and I generally take an +outing with Mrs. Higginbotham, who wishes to be kindly remembered to +you. She takes a great interest in my enterprise, and refreshes her +memory and mine during our little jaunts by getting me to repeat to her +without book such things as I have learnt during the week as come +within the limits of the curriculum to which she applied herself during +girlhood. The subjects themselves are hardly such as in my judgment +repay the amount of study necessary to master them. What with the +growing competition in commercial life, and the great influx of +foreigners—Germans and others—it seems to me waste of time to devote +three valuable years of a young man's life in getting up the opinions +of a man like Plato, who lived so many years ago that his ideas are by +no means up-to-date. Or take a poet like Virgil again—if Virgil can +be justly called a poet. Compare his thoughts with those of our own +immortal Shakespeare—the Swan of Avon—or even with Macaulay's <i>Lays +of Ancient Rome</i>, if you <i>must</i> have matters of ancient history treated +in poetry. And what is the use of puzzling over the Acts of the +Apostles in the Original Greek, when that book, as well as the rest of +the New Testament, has been so admirably translated in the Revised +Version? What the authorities of our Universities entirely fail to +grasp is that Latin and Greek <i>are not spoken nowadays</i>. How much +better young men would be fitted for the business of life if they were +trained to speak and write French and German fluently! This is so +obvious to a man of experience that I seriously thought of writing to +the Chancellor of the University, the Duke of Devonshire, and laying my +views before him, but Minshull dissuaded me, saying that I should be in +a better position to bring to bear any influence I might possess after +I have taken my degree, which is perfectly true. But the truth of it +is there are too many old women at the head of the Universities. What +you want are keen-headed men, men of experience in the world, who would +move with the times, and get Oxford and Cambridge to move with them. I +am so convinced I am right in this opinion, that if it were not for the +cares of business, to which I must return when I have finished with +Cambridge, I should apply for a Trinity fellowship after I have taken +my degree, and try to infuse a little spirit into the counsels of the +college and through it into the University. +</p> + +<p> +"I must now draw to a close and return to my studies. I feel that they +are beneath my powers, but at the same time I must not grumble at +having to begin at the bottom rung of the ladder. 'Thorough' has +always been my motto and will continue so. No more at present, from +your affectionate father,—PETER BINNEY." +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney's letters as the time went on became more and more sprightly +in tone. With the cares of business he seemed to have finally laid +aside all the interests commonly felt by gentlemen who have reached +middle age. He relapsed into slang. Minshull, he said, was a "jolly +good sort," only you had to work. It was no good trying to "kid him." +The subjects for examination he now found "beastly stiff," and it was +an "awful sap" getting them up, but he quite expected to have "bowled +them over" by the time the examination was due. He mentioned Mrs. +Higginbotham once or twice as one on whose approval of the course he +was pursuing he greatly relied. +</p> + +<p> +"Confound that old woman," said Lucius when he read this. "She's +backing him up in all this nonsense. She's a sentimental old donkey. +Well, he can't do it in time, that's one comfort;" and Lucius would +encourage himself by dwelling on this conviction, and then tear up his +father's letters. +</p> + +<p> +He came up to town for two nights about the end of June on his long +leave. Mr. Binney, of course, was full of his work. He wished to be +treated just like any other youth with the ordeal of an examination +before him, and itched to talk over his chances. But Lucius retired +into his shell whenever Cambridge was mentioned. Mr. Binney, of +course, noticed this and began to get his back up about it. At last he +tackled his son in the most effectual way as they sat together in the +library at Russell Square after dinner. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here, young man," he said, "you may as well get used to this +idea. You and I are going up to Trinity together, and I want to do the +thing fairly and squarely. I shall put us both on an allowance, and at +present I intend to make them equal. But if you're going to be sulky +about it, they won't be equal, or anything like it. So put that in +your pipe and smoke it." +</p> + +<p> +"What allowance?" inquired Lucius with some interest. His father had +always refused to come to the point when he had asked him the same +question before. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I thought of £300 a year," said Mr. Binney. "Minshull did it on +£200, and did it very well, but, as he says, Trinity is the college +where all the swells go, and if you want to live up to 'em you might +have to spend a bit more. As I say, I want to do the thing well." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't suppose Minshull knows much about it," said Lucius. "Most of +the chaps I know are going to have about four hundred, and hardly any +of them less than three. You have to be jolly careful on three hundred +a year at Trinity." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, well," said Mr. Binney, "I won't let a hundred a year, or even +two, stand in the way, and we'll share alike if you're sensible about +it. But I'm not going to pay you four hundred a year to look down on +your father, so you had better make up your mind how you're going to +behave before October comes." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius sat silent with a gloomy countenance and his hands in his +pockets. When he was at school the idea of his father accompanying him +to Cambridge as a freshman seemed so absurd that he was sometimes +surprised to find that he was enjoying life much as usual, without +being very much burdened by it. When he was at home and realised how +very much in earnest Mr. Binney was, the dark fate that hung over him +became less remote, and filled him with gloomy forebodings. But youth +is elastic. It seemed almost out of the question that Mr. Binney would +succeed in passing the entrance examination, while Lucius himself was +already admitted a member of Trinity College. The allowance his father +had named seemed to him quite adequate, and he allowed himself to cheer +up a little and inquire after the health of Mrs. Higginbotham. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney coughed in some little embarrassment. +</p> + +<p> +"Mrs. Higginbotham has a bad cold," he said, "and is confined to the +house. I hope she will be well enough to accompany me to Lord's for +the Eton and Harrow match, if the state of her bronchial tubes, which +are giving her a lot of trouble just now, permit of it. You will be +able to introduce us to some of your friends and future companions at +Cambridge." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm very sorry," said Lucius, "but I shan't be there. Henley comes in +the same week." +</p> + +<p> +"I shall be at Henley as well," said Mr. Binney, "and Mrs. Higginbotham +has kindly consented to accompany me. She takes a great interest in +your rowing career, Lucius, as she does in every other manly sport. +Ah! I hope the day may come when I myself—but we mustn't count our +chickens before they are hatched, must we? With regard to Henley, you +will be able to go about with us, I suppose, and see that——" +</p> + +<p> +"Very sorry, father," interrupted Lucius hastily, "I shall be rowing +nearly all day long. We're in for the Grand and the Ladies' Plate. +Besides, the captain of the boats is a terrible fellow. If he caught +one of us so much as speaking to a lady he'd cut up very rough." +</p> + +<p> +"Why is that, pray?" inquired Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I don't know. They might offer us an ice or something. We have +to be awfully strict, you know, over training." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, well, that's a pity. Mrs. Higginbotham would like to meet a few +of the young fellows who will be my companions for the next three +years. She said so. Perhaps you might get one of your cricketing +friends who would be unoccupied to look after us." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm afraid most of them will have people of their own to look after. +However, if any of them happens to lose his father and mother between +now and Henley, I'll see what can be done." +</p> + +<p> +"And now I must go to bed," said Mr. Binney, "so as to begin work early +to-morrow morning. I don't want to lose a minute more than I can help. +I'm not getting on terms with Mr. Plato as quickly as I should like. I +shall be able to introduce you to Minshull before you start, Lucius. +He's a good chap, and not a bit stand-offish as you might expect, +considering he's a B.A., and I'm not even a freshman yet. You'll find +him quite easy to get on with." +</p> + +<p> +Minshull was one of those people in whose eyes a three years' residence +at Oxford or Cambridge is such a glorious thing, that if they have gone +through it themselves they can talk or think of nothing else throughout +their lives. The healthy pleasant life of the average undergraduate is +idealised into a sort of seventh heaven, and a "blue" takes his place +immediately below the archangels and considerably above any mere +mortal. Seniority of residence forms an almost complete bar to social +intercourse with undergraduates of lower standing, and the little code +of etiquette invented to enliven proceedings in the lesser colleges is +as the laws of the Medes and Persians. To be or to have been "a +'Varsity man" was the only thing quite necessary in Minshull's eyes, if +you were to call yourself a gentleman, and he therefore saw nothing +that was not entirely laudable in Mr. Binney's determination to acquire +this hall-mark of superiority, however late in life. While trying to +instil into his pupil the requisite amount of Latin and Greek, he +imparted to him at the same time his own particular point of view in +matters of undergraduate custom, taught him what to admire and what to +avoid, until Mr. Binney was infused with the spirit of a provincial +youth about to enter the gates of the University paradise from his +country grammar school. Mr. Binney had first of all considered a +belated career at Cambridge as an opportunity for mending a defective +education; under the encouragement of Mrs. Higginbotham's yearnings +after vanished delights he had come to look upon it as a means of +gaining some of the prestige of golden youth; influenced by Minshull's +complacent reverence, he had insensibly drifted away from the careless +acquiescence with which Lucius, for instance, regarded his own proposed +residence at the University, and now felt that he should break his +heart if he was prevented from taking his part in the glamorous +delights which his tutor held before his eyes. He made herculean +efforts to get on terms with his examination subjects, and worked +harder than he had ever done in his life before. +</p> + +<p> +Minshull arrived at nine o'clock the next morning as usual. Mr. +Binney, who had been working since seven and had breakfasted at eight, +had not yet returned from a short constitutional, and Lucius had the +privilege of an interview with his father's tutor. +</p> + +<p> +Minshull was a tall young man, rather shabbily dressed, with a long +solemn face diversified by little ranges of spots of an eruptive +tendency. He greeted Lucius with some respect, for Lucius was a +potential "blue," and Minshull would have been as incapable of keeping +on his hat in church as of talking without due reverence to a "blue." +</p> + +<p> +"How's the governor getting on with his work?" asked Lucius with an +abashed snigger. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, pretty well," replied Minshull. "He works very hard, but of +course he has to do everything from the beginning." +</p> + +<p> +"No chance of his getting through, I suppose?" said Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I don't know," said Minshull. "If he works as hard as he has been +doing so far for the next three months he may just be able to scrape +through in October." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius began to pace the room. +</p> + +<p> +"If he gets into Trinity I won't go up, that's flat," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"What! Not go up to the ''Varsity' when you've got a chance!" +exclaimed Minshull. "My dear fellow, you don't know what you're +talking about. You will regret it all your life if you don't." +</p> + +<p> +"Look here," said Lucius, "you were at Cambridge, weren't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, certainly," said Minshull, slightly offended. "I took my degree +last year." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, how would you have liked to have your old governor playing the +fool up there at the same college?" +</p> + +<p> +"I see no reason to suppose that Mr. Binney will play the fool," said +Minshull stiffly. "I have put him up to everything he ought to know. +He won't make mistakes. He is not likely to carry an umbrella with a +cap and gown or anything of that sort." +</p> + +<p> +"Why shouldn't he carry an umbrella if it rains? Look here, can't you +make certain of his getting pilled for this examination?" +</p> + +<p> +Minshull looked horrified. "What! and prevent his going up to the +'Varsity when he wants to?" he exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"Or if you can't do that and he's likely to get through, tell him that +you don't think much of Trinity, and get him to go somewhere else." +</p> + +<p> +"There are plenty of good colleges in Cambridge besides Trinity," said +Minshull, "although Trinity men don't seem to think so. My own +college, for instance, Peterhouse, isn't big, but it is one of the +best, if not <i>the</i> best of the smaller ones." +</p> + +<p> +"Is it? Well then, get him to go there. Do you mean to say you don't +think it's a beastly shame him wanting to come up and spoil all my time +at Cambridge?" +</p> + +<p> +"I can't see——" began Minshull, but just then Mr. Binney came in, and +Lucius left them to their labours, with the uncomfortable conviction +that the toils were closing in on him and that there was no help at any +rate to be gained from his father's tutor. +</p> + +<p> +Henley week came round in due course, but Mrs. Higginbotham, alas, did +not come round with it. Her cold had settled on her lungs and the poor +lady was brought very low. At the time Mr. Binney hoped to have been +paddling her about on the Thames in a Canadian canoe she was surveying +the beauties of Torquay in a bathchair. Mr. Binney had been told by +Minshull that if he really wished to pass the Trinity entrance +examination in October, it was absolutely imperative that he should not +lose a single day's work if he could possibly help it, so Lucius won a +reprieve for that occasion, at least, and as the Eton boys managed to +win the Ladies' Plate and rowed a good race in the semi-final heat for +the Grand Challenge Cup, he spent on the whole a pleasant Henley. +During the first few weeks of his holidays he was training for and +rowing in some of the up-river regattas, and September he spent with +various school-fellows in Scotland, so it was not until just before he +was due at Cambridge that he found himself once more in the house in +Russell Square and the society of his father. Mr. Binney, in the +meantime, fired with a mighty ambition to show his mettle and acquit +himself well in his examination, had retired to an east coast village +with Minshull, and devoted himself strenuously to his books. He had +worked very hard for six months, but a man who has left a cheap +commercial school at the age of fourteen, and that thirty years before, +can hardly expect to do in that time what a public school boy has been +working steadily up to ever since his education began. A month before +the examination, Minshull saw that his pupil had no chance of success, +and told him so one morning as they were walking together by the sea. +Mr. Binney was heart-broken. +</p> + +<p> +"<i>No</i> chance, Minshull?" he asked plaintively. "I don't mind working +another two hours a day, you know. Isn't there <i>any</i> chance?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm afraid not, Mr. Binney," said Minshull. "You have worked very +hard; you couldn't have done better; but you see the work is all new to +you. You might get in at the Hall, perhaps, or if you cared about it I +should think I might have enough influence with the Peterhouse +authorities to——" +</p> + +<p> +"Never," said Mr. Binney firmly. "Trinity or nowhere. If I make up my +mind to a thing, I stick to it. I shouldn't have made my fortune if I +hadn't." +</p> + +<p> +"I should advise you, sir, to give up all ideas of attempting the +October examination," said Minshull. "I can assure you you can't +possibly pass it, and if you do very badly it may be prejudicial to +your chances in the future. Take a month's holiday, or you'll knock +yourself up. Then set to work again and be ready for them next spring." +</p> + +<p> +"I feel you're right," said poor Mr. Binney. "I feel you're right, +Minshull, but it's a sad blow. You'll excuse me if I just walk on +alone for a bit. I shall get over it better." +</p> + +<p> +Minshull left him, and Mr. Binney spent a very bitter hour by himself. +He had never been beaten before when he had made up his mind to +succeed, and it enraged him to think of the two hundred beardless boys +who would enter Trinity College as freshmen in a month's time, most of +whom had succeeded without any difficulty in doing what he could not do +even with the most strenuous endeavours. Lucius, for instance, had +taken the whole thing very calmly, although he was not a particularly +clever nor a particularly diligent boy. Then his thoughts passed on to +Mrs. Higginbotham—Martha. That was the worst thought of all. He had +written once a week to Mrs. Higginbotham, alluding in an airy way to +his new acquaintances, Plato and Virgil and Euclid, as if he and they +were on the most intimate terms of familiarity. Now he would have to +tell her that their thoughts were too deep for him—for him who had +familiarised all England with the mind of a Shakespeare—and that the +languages by means of which they expressed their thoughts still +presented such a mountain of obstacles to him that it was doubtful if +he would ever succeed in getting over them. Still, the confession +would have to be made, and Mr. Binney, with that directness which +characterised all his actions, determined that it should be made that +very night. "I am very, very sorry, Martha," he wrote, "I have really +done my best. I shouldn't have been worthy of you if I hadn't. I'm +afraid your Peter is a bit of a dunce, although he never thought so +before. Write and say you will not throw me over for it, and I shall +set to work again with renewed earnestness." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham, although deeply disappointed, wrote a very kind and +consoling letter from Torquay, where her bronchial tubes, which had +assumed complete mastery over all her actions, still detained her. +</p> + +<p> +"If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again," she wrote, and +thought she had said a very original thing. "I always found, when I +was a young lady at school, that if I couldn't master my tasks +immediately, the only thing for it was, not to give them up, but to +determine that I <i>would</i> master them in time; and my mistress, Miss +Dolby—now an angel—used frequently to point me out to the parents of +other pupils, and say, 'That child has great determination, and will +undoubtedly make her mark.' I am aware that I have not fulfilled Miss +Dolby's prophecy up to present date, but your triumphs are mine, Peter, +and I trust that we shall both grow famous together." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney was much encouraged by Mrs. Higginbotham's letter. He took +a holiday and went to Torquay, and by the time Lucius went up to +Cambridge early in October, very much relieved at the idea of at least +one year free from the companionship of his father as a fellow +undergraduate, he had settled down for a hard winter's work in Russell +Square. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap04"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER IV +</h3> + +<h4> +NO HELP TO BE GAINED FROM MRS. HIGGINBOTHAM +</h4> + +<p> +Lucius Binney enjoyed his first year at Cambridge exceedingly. He had +been popular at school and he was very much liked at the University. +He did enough work to enable him to avoid friction with the authorities +and passed both parts of his Littlego in his first term. He rowed in +the Trial Eights, but as he was not heavy enough to fill any place but +bow in a University boat, a place which was adequately filled already, +he did not get his Blue. His allowance enabled him to play his part in +the hospitalities of University life with credit, and he showed no +disposition to exceed it. He was made a member of the historic Amateur +Dramatic Club, commonly known as the A.D.C., and played the part of a +maid-servant in the first performances of his year on the most approved +principles of Cambridge dramatic art, with a slim waist, a high colour, +and an unmistakably masculine voice. He would have been one of the +happiest men in the University if he had not been continually haunted +by the thought of his father. +</p> + +<p> +But for some reason or other Mr. Binney, although he insisted upon +lengthy letters being written to him, giving the fullest possible +account of University matters, expressed no intention of paying him a +visit, as Lucius lived in continual fear of his doing. Perhaps he was +ashamed of his inability to pass the entrance examination after having +made certain of doing so; perhaps he preferred to make his first +appearance amongst Cambridge men as an undergraduate and not as the +guest of an undergraduate. At any rate he left Lucius unmolested +during his first two terms, but his letters became more and more +jubilant as he worked on at his examination subjects, and felt himself +getting nearer the desired goal. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius had a friend called Dizzy. His name was not really Dizzy, but +it is only fair to state that he had been christened Benjamin. To him +alone, of all his friends, Lucius had disclosed, under a solemn promise +of secrecy, the dark fate that was hanging over him. +</p> + +<p> +"He'll pass this time, Dizzy, I know he will," said Lucius, after +receiving a more than usually confident letter from his father, who +informed him that Minshull had told him that his Latin prose was, at +last, beginning to show signs of an elementary grasp of the fact that +there was such a thing as Latin grammar. +</p> + +<p> +"Not he," said Dizzy with complete confidence. "He'll never pass. I +knew an old geezer—no offence to your governor, Lucy—who first took +up Latin when his little boys were seven and eight, under a governess. +First week they were all three about equal. Then the eldest boy began +to forge ahead. In a fortnight the little one left the old man behind, +and after a month the governess said she'd have to go if he didn't do +her more credit. He didn't want that, so he married her, which was +what he'd been after all along, only hadn't liked to say so. They +can't learn things at that time of life, my boy, any more than we can +make a pot of money by winking at a fellow on the Stock Exchange. It's +not in 'em." +</p> + +<p> +"You don't know my governor," said Lucius, his depression very little +lightened by Dizzy's narrative. "He's been at it for nearly a year +now, grinding like a galley slave. That fellow Minshull must have got +something into his head by this time. And after all the entrance exam +isn't anything very big, is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not to us; we're educated men," said Dizzy, who was a member of +Trinity Hall, where the entrance examination is tempered to the shorn +Trinity candidate. "But it's the devil and all to people like your old +governor who ain't used to that sort of thing. <i>He</i> won't pass, Lucy; +don't you be afraid of it." +</p> + +<p> +"It's too bad of him wanting to come up, isn't it, Dizzy?" said poor +Lucius, who yearned for sympathy and could only obtain it from this one +particular friend. +</p> + +<p> +"It <i>is</i> too bad," said Dizzy. "I don't know what governors are coming +to. There's mine wrote to me the other day and said I was disgracing +the family name, just because I turned out those lights in St. Andrew's +Street and got hauled up at the police court for it. I told him I did +it entirely to save the ratepayers' money. He's always talking about +the enormous fiscal burdens he's got to bear, or some such tommy-rot, +and I thought that would please him. But not a bit of it. Governors +never listen to reason. I got eight pages back with a lot more about +the family name. Hang it, it ain't much of a name after all." +</p> + +<p> +It was not. It was Stubbs. But General Sir Richard Stubbs, V.C., had +done his little best to adorn it in days gone by and saw no great +probability of his son Benjamin doing the same in days to come. +</p> + +<p> +The account Lucius gave at home of his doings fired Mr. Binney's +imagination. +</p> + +<p> +"Splendid, my boy, splendid!" cried the little man, when he described +the two bumps which the Third Trinity boat had made in the Lent races. +"I shall go in for rowing myself; best exercise you can have," and Mr. +Binney drew himself up and struck the place where his chest would have +been if he had had one. "Is it likely, do you think, Lucius, that you +and I will row in the same boat?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's not only unlikely," said Lucius shortly, "it's impossible." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, indeed," said Mr. Binney, with a dangerous gleam in his eye. "You +are such a swell I suppose, that nobody else can expect to come near +you." +</p> + +<p> +"You wouldn't even belong to the same boat-club," said Lucius. "You +ought to know that by this time. Third Trinity is only for Eton and +Westminster men, the rest of the college belongs to First Trinity." +</p> + +<p> +"I did know it," said Mr. Binney, "but I had forgotten it for the +moment. You needn't take me up so sharp, Lucius. Is First Trinity a +good boat club?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course it is," said Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"Very well, then, I shall join it, and take up rowing seriously. Have +you spoken at the Union yet?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, I don't belong to it. I shouldn't speak if I did, and it's no +good belonging to that and the 'Pitt' too." +</p> + +<p> +"The 'Pitt'! What's the 'Pitt'?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's a club." +</p> + +<p> +"Is it the thing to belong to it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I don't know. A lot of people do." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, well, I must belong to that too." +</p> + +<p> +"You have to be elected to it. People sometimes get pilled." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I should hope there wouldn't be much chance of <i>my</i> getting +pilled, whatever that may mean. I belong to the National Liberal Club. +That ought to be enough for them, oughtn't it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite enough for them, I should think," answered Lucius, who had once +dined at that famous institution with Peter, and been offensively +patronised by one of Mr. Binney's fellow-members, a man old enough to +be his father. +</p> + +<p> +"I shall join the Union," continued Mr. Binney. "I expect most of my +triumphs will lie there. I am accustomed to addressing large +assemblies. I was nearly elected to the London County Council two +years ago, as you know. That's where I score, you see, being a man of +the world among a lot of boys. I've learnt to do things that they are +only just beginning to think about." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes. You've made your pile among other things," replied Lucius. +"Most of us haven't learnt to do that yet. We generally begin at the +other end and spend it first." +</p> + +<p> +"I shan't grudge spending some of it," said Mr. Binney. "I hope to +entertain the young fellows a good deal. Minshull says if you give a +few good breakfasts every term—do the thing well, you know, with +perhaps some fruit and a bottle of claret to come after—you get a +tremendous reputation for hospitality throughout the 'Varsity. Is that +so?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I'm not sure I ever met anybody who drank claret at breakfast. +I did know a fellow who used to drink brandy. He certainly did get a +tremendous reputation throughout the 'Varsity, but it wasn't for +hospitality. He wasn't up there long." +</p> + +<p> +"H'm. Well, Minshull said he knew a man who went up a bit late, who +had more money to spend than most people, who got into the first set at +Peterhouse through his breakfasts." +</p> + +<p> +"Did he? Lucky fellow! Well, I should give a few breakfasts if I were +you, father. We shall all think you a tremendous chap." +</p> + +<p> +"I mean to go one better than that, my boy, and give a little dinner +occasionally, to the <i>élite</i> of the 'Varsity—Blues, and people of that +sort. I daresay you young fellows will only be too pleased to go +outside the ordinary lines once in a way. I suppose there's no rule +against giving dinners, is there?" +</p> + +<p> +"I never heard of it. It's pretty often broken if there is." +</p> + +<p> +"I intend to do the thing well, and open a bottle of champagne. I +daresay, now, champagne's a thing that's hardly known at Cambridge." +</p> + +<p> +"That's what I told my wine merchant last term. He was rather annoyed." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't object to a little jollification occasionally. I daresay you +and I, Lucius—-for you shall do what I do—will become pretty well +known up there by-and-bye." +</p> + +<p> +"I dare say we shall," said Lucius with a sigh. And, indeed, it did +not seem unlikely. +</p> + +<p> +Before Lucius went back to Cambridge for the summer term, he made one +last attempt to avert the catastrophe which had now become +imminent—for Minshull had told him that Mr. Binney was now quite +capable of passing the required test. He called on Mrs. Higginbotham, +whose bronchial tubes had by this time become less ostentatious in +their behaviour. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Lucius," said that lady, when he was seated opposite to her in +her comfortable drawing-room, "you will soon have your dear father to +look after you at college. It is not many young men who have a father +so ready to share in all their little pleasures." +</p> + +<p> +"No," said Lucius. "Don't you think you could stop him, Mrs. +Higginbotham, if you tried?" +</p> + +<p> +"Stop him!" exclaimed Mrs. Higginbotham with raised voice and hands. +"My dear Lucius, do not tell me that you are so selfish as to be +jealous of an excellent father." +</p> + +<p> +"Jealous!" echoed Lucius. "I don't know what you mean." +</p> + +<p> +"You <i>do</i> know what I mean, Lucius," said Mrs. Higginbotham severely. +"And you <i>are</i> jealous. I can see it in your face. Here is your dear +father continually talking to me with pride about the things you are +doing at Cambridge, while you are only thinking of yourself, and fear +that you will lose the position you have won when he is there to +compete with you. What a contrast! You should be ashamed of such +feelings, Lucius. I am sure I should be if I were in your place. What +matter if you do have to take a lower place in the estimation of your +young friends, when it is your own father—and <i>such</i> a father—who +will replace you? I do not like to think of such behaviour." +</p> + +<p> +"He'll only be laughed at, you know," said Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"And do you mean to tell me that, as an unworthy revenge for your loss +of prestige, you would actually dare to hold your own father up to +ridicule?" inquired Mrs. Higginbotham. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course I shouldn't," said Lucius. "I should do my best to prevent +his making a f—I mean becoming notorious." +</p> + +<p> +"There!" said Mrs. Higginbotham triumphantly. "Now you have +acknowledged your baseness, Lucius. I am thoroughly ashamed of you. +But you will learn that you <i>cannot</i> prevent your father from becoming +notorious. He is <i>bound</i> to take the lead in whatever he takes up, +especially among a lot of boys many years his juniors, and far inferior +in capacity. I am afraid that in addition to your miserable jealousy, +Lucius, there are things you wish to hide in your life at Cambridge, +things that you do not wish your father to know of. I hope, indeed, +that is not so. I should be truly sorry if the innocent life to which +he is looking forward with such pleasure was to be spoiled by the +misbehaviour of one for whom he has done so much." +</p> + +<p> +"I've got nothing to be ashamed of in my life at Cambridge, Mrs. +Higginbotham," said Lucius. "You don't seem to be any more reasonable +about this silly scheme than my father himself. I had better go, I +think." +</p> + +<p> +"I think so too," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "And do not come and see me +again, Lucius, until you are in a better frame of mind, and can speak +with more respect to one of your father's oldest friends." +</p> + +<p> +"I won't come and see you again at all, you silly old fool," said +Lucius; but he waited to say it until he was on the other side of the +door. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap05"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER V +</h3> + +<h4> +MR. BINNEY ARRIVES IN CAMBRIDGE +</h4> + +<p> +Lucius's first May term wore itself out with a burst of glorious summer +weather. The boat races and cricket matches, the dances and college +concerts, the crowds of sisters and cousins, the mayonnaises and iced +cups, and all the other attributes of those ten days of mid-June which +go by the name of the May week, played their accustomed parts in +mitigating the severity of the toil to which Cambridge devotes itself +for the rest of the academic year. +</p> + +<p> +But to Lucius there was a heavy cloud darkening the vivid blue of the +summer sky. Mr. Binney was to arrive at the end of the term, to +undergo his examination. The days passed with relentless speed, and +one unhappy morning he found himself walking up and down the long +unlovely platform of the Cambridge station, awaiting the train which +was bearing his father rapidly towards the scene of his future +exploits. So far only Mr. Benjamin Stubbs shared with him the +knowledge of the evil fate that was in store for him. But the secret +was bound to come out now, and Lucius wondered whether there was a more +unhappy man in all Cambridge than himself. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney arrived, accompanied by Minshull, for whom he had taken +rooms at the Hoop, in order that he might have the advantage of his +able tuition up to the very last moment, for he was determined to throw +away no little chance that might add to his prospect of success. Mr. +Binney himself had been allotted rooms in college for the few days +during which the examination lasted. If he was not already a Cambridge +man this was the next best thing to it, and a proud man was Mr. Binney +to find himself the occupant of a garret in the Great Court with a +bedroom which any one of his servants at Russell Square would have +turned up her nose at. They were the rooms of a sizar, and were barely +furnished even for a very poor man's rooms, but the sizar had blossomed +into the Senior Wrangler of that year, and that fact repaid Mr. Binney +in full for any little inconvenience he might have felt at being +deprived of most of the necessities and all the luxuries of life to +which he had been accustomed. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius accompanied his father to these rooms and left him to himself, +for he was lunching with the captain of his boat. It was the last +night of the races, and Mr. Binney proposed, after spending a busy +afternoon with Minshull over his books, to go down to Ditton Corner and +see the boats. Lucius thanked his lucky stars that he was rowing and +need not present his father to an admiring circle of friends on that +very public occasion. He would have been pleased enough to introduce +him as a father, there or at any other place, if he had come up simply +to pay him a visit, for Lucius was a right-minded boy and showed no +disposition to be ashamed of his somewhat humble origin among his +circle of more or less gilded youth; but to have to say "My father, who +is coming up here next term," and to have to stand by while little Mr. +Binney tried to reduce himself to the level of an inexperienced +schoolboy, as he felt certain he would do, was an ordeal that he did +not feel equal to, and he made up his mind to let the inevitable +catastrophe bring itself about in its own way. He told himself that he +was happy to have averted it for so long, for although some of the dons +knew of Mr. Binney's intention, and his own Tutor had actually talked +to him about it, the secret did not seem to have become public property +among the undergraduates of the college. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney was delighted with everything he saw. The gay crowd in the +paddock at Ditton Corner, the lines of carriages on one side, and the +flotilla of moored boats under the bank, appealed to him with all the +force of a delightful novelty. The boating men and others on the +tow-path across the river, with the photographers plying their trade +and letting off their amiable witticisms through their megaphones, the +boat crews in their coloured coats, some of them with flowers in their +hats, swinging down to their stations round the bend, gave him great +pleasure. Then, after a pause, filled with the gossip and laughter of +the crowd, when a distant gun was heard, and three minutes afterwards a +second, and a minute after yet another; when the men in the boats under +the bank straightened themselves and said, "They're off"; when a moving +mass of the heads of men running was seen far away under the willows +across the meadows; when little men laden with bundles of coats fled +along the tow-path opposite towards the "Pike and Eel"; when the noise +of the shouting and the springing of rattles drew nearer; when every +head in the crowd was turned towards Ditton Corner, and two boats came +into sight very close to one another, and after them two more, and the +shouting and cheering was taken up by every one around him, Mr. Binney +lost his head with excitement, and yelled with the best of them, +especially for the heroes of Fitzwilliam Hall whom he, for some reason +or other, mistook for a Trinity crew. +</p> + +<p> +"It's grand, Minshull, it's grand," he said as they made their way home +with the crowd along the river bank and across Midsummer Common. "I +don't wonder at your being proud of Cambridge, Minshull." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad Pothouse made their bump just opposite Ditton," said Minshull +complacently. "Now you see what rowing is like, Mr. Binney." +</p> + +<p> +"Lucius rowed well," said Mr. Binney. "Didn't you think so?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Minshull, who had been a diligent but ineffective La Crosse +and hockey player during his residence at the University, and hardly +knew an oar from a barge pole. "But it seemed to me that he hardly +caught the beginning enough." +</p> + +<p> +"You had better tell him that," said Mr. Binney with unconscious irony. +"I dare say he'll be glad of any hints he can get." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius sat in his rooms in Jesus Lane the next afternoon in a very +depressed frame of mind. His father had intimated that he was coming +to tea. Lucius had invited Dizzy to meet him, hoping that his friend's +pleasant flow of conversation would help out the entertainment, and +prevent his own plentiful lack of cheerfulness from becoming too +apparent; but Dizzy had not arrived yet. He devoutly hoped that nobody +else would unexpectedly honour him with his society. But alas! an Eton +friend, one year his junior, who was in for the entrance examination, +took that untoward opportunity of paying him a visit. +</p> + +<p> +"There's such a rummy little devil up," he said in the course of +conversation, "about sixty years old, with carrotty whiskers. It +oughtn't to be allowed." +</p> + +<p> +The blow had fallen. Poor Lucius sat silent in untold misery, and just +then in walked Mr. Binney. "My father," said the wretched boy. "Lord +Blathgowrie." +</p> + +<p> +Lord Blathgowrie shook hands with Mr. Binney without visible +embarrassment, and then, suddenly remembering a pressing engagement, +went out to spread his extraordinary news. +</p> + +<p> +"A lord!" said little Mr. Binney with great satisfaction. "Well, there +are a good many lords I could buy up. However, that seems a nice young +fellow. I wonder how he got on with his Virgil paper. I must ask him +to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius groaned inwardly. "I shouldn't pal up to chaps like that, if I +were you, father," he said. "I should keep as quiet as I could, or +you'll make yourself and me look jolly ridiculous." +</p> + +<p> +"Allow me to tell you, sir," said Mr. Binney up in arms at once, "that +no action I choose to take is likely to make either you or myself look +ridiculous. And I object to being made the butt of such observations +from my own son. It isn't the first time it has happened, and in order +that it may be the last, I beg to tell you that it is my intention to +knock ten pounds a year off your very handsome allowance for every +speech of that sort that I am called upon to listen to." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius groaned again and passed his hand wearily across his brow, but +made no verbal remonstrance to his father's harsh announcement, and +just then the door of the house was heard to slam, and Dizzy tumbled +noisily upstairs and into the room. +</p> + +<p> +"My father—Mr. Stubbs," said Lucius dejectedly. +</p> + +<p> +"How do you do, Mr. Binney," said the cheerful Dizzy. "Pleased to meet +you. Lucy—I mean Lucius, told me you were thinking of giving us a +turn up here. Not a bad place, is it? Better than Threadneedle +Street, eh?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know very much about Threadneedle Street, Mr. Stubbs," said +Mr. Binney, a little taken aback by Dizzy's extreme friendliness, "but +this certainly is <i>not</i> a bad place. Indeed it is a very good place. +It is a noble place." +</p> + +<p> +"How did you get on with your papers?" inquired Dizzy, helping himself +to a large slice of cake. "Pipped 'em all right, I hope." +</p> + +<p> +"I think I acquitted myself tolerably satisfactorily, thank you," +answered Mr. Binney. "We were examined on the Acts of the Apostles +this afternoon." +</p> + +<p> +"Rummy old boys, those Apostles," began Dizzy in a vein of reminiscent +anecdote, but Mr. Binney interrupted him. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Stubbs," he said, "I am a man of religious views. I must beg you +not to make light of sacred matters. You'll excuse my making the +stipulation, but——" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, not at all," said the unabashed Dizzy ambiguously, "don't mention +it. I was only going to say that it seems a rummy thing—however, +perhaps I'd better not. See the races yesterday?" +</p> + +<p> +"I did," said Mr. Binney, warming at once. "I never saw anything which +pleased me better. What a thing it is to see a lot of young fellows +going in for such a grand sport as that!" +</p> + +<p> +"It is," said Dizzy. "I'm a whale on sport. I ain't much of a hand in +a boat myself, but put me on a horse and I'll undertake to——" +</p> + +<p> +"Tumble off," interpolated Lucius, who was in a state of irritation +verging on desperation. +</p> + +<p> +"Lucy, you've got a fit of the green-eyed monster," said Dizzy. "You +ride like a bag of potatoes yourself, and you're jealous of those who +can beat you. Don't you pay any attention to him, Mr. Binney. You'll +get to know him by-and-bye. Going to keep a horse up here?" +</p> + +<p> +"I hadn't thought of it," said Mr. Binney doubtfully. "I rather +thought of devoting myself to rowing." +</p> + +<p> +"Capital thing," said Dizzy. "I knew a fellow who——" +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy's anecdote was so little to the point that it may be omitted. In +later life he would probably become one of those old men who interrupt +conversation with the dread opening, "I recollect upon one occasion," +and sail off into interminable pointless reminiscence. But, at +present, his absolute lack of self-consciousness and his flow of +youthful good spirits made him very agreeable company, and when he left +Lucius's rooms half-an-hour later, he had completely captivated Mr. +Binney with his artless prattle. +</p> + +<p> +"That's a very nice young fellow," said Mr. Binney, when the door had +closed on Dizzy's back. "If all your friends at Trinity are like that, +Lucius——" +</p> + +<p> +"Stubbs isn't at Trinity," said Lucius, "he's at the Hall." +</p> + +<p> +"Really!" said Mr. Binney, much surprised, "I thought that Trinity men +never associated on equal terms with men of other colleges." +</p> + +<p> +"That's one of Minshull's ridiculous ideas, I suppose," said Lucius. +"It doesn't matter what college a fellow is at if he's a good chap, and +there are plenty of good chaps in Cambridge outside Trinity, especially +at the Hall." +</p> + +<p> +"But I should have expected a little more—what shall I +say?—deference, in a man from another college." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, then, I'm afraid it's one of those expectations in which you'll +be disappointed if you're really coming up here. Trinity's the best +college in Cambridge—or Oxford either for that matter—but it isn't +the only one, and nobody thinks it is unless it's fellows like +Minshull, who are always running it down, although they would have +given their ears to belong to it themselves." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't like the tone you take up about Minshull, Lucius," said Mr. +Binney. "Minshull's a very good fellow, although he hasn't had the +advantages that you and I have. I owe him a great deal, and I shan't +forget it. Now I must go and look over the subjects for to-morrow's +papers." +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap06"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER VI +</h3> + +<h4> +LORD BLATHGOWRIE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY +</h4> + +<p> +Poor Lucius went up to Cambridge for his second year with his allowance +pared down to £360 a year, for, careful as he was, he had not been so +successful as altogether to avoid hurting his father's +susceptibilities; and with him went Mr. Binney, for eighteen months of +hard toil had enabled him to pass the entrance examination, and he was +now duly admitted a pensioner of Trinity. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius had been allotted rooms in college, while Mr. Binney inhabited +one of the choice mansions in Jesus Lane. He had knocked off ten +pounds from his son's allowance for suggesting a retired situation in +the Trumpington Road. "I am determined to do the thing as well as my +means will permit of," he had said. "If I can secure good rooms in +college next year, I shall do so. Until then I shall take the best +lodgings that are available." +</p> + +<p> +They parted at the railway station. "I suppose I shall see you some +time to-morrow," said Mr. Binney, when he had collected his luggage and +was just stepping into a fly. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose so," said Lucius dejectedly, as he drove away. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius dined that night in hall, and sat in extreme misery while his +friends aired their humour at his expense, for by this time the news of +Mr. Binney's arrival had become public property. Their chaff was not +ill-humoured, and if matters had stood as they evidently imagined, +Lucius could have borne it. Elderly undergraduates are not altogether +unknown at Cambridge, although they do not often appear at Trinity +College; but they are usually careful to comport themselves with +dignified reticence, and to keep very much in the background. A +University degree is, as a rule, the sole end they have in view in +putting themselves to school again, and they are very far from wishing +to ape the manners and customs of the young men with whom they share +the pursuit of that laudable object. Lucius had the mortification of +feeling that if Mr. Binney had contented himself with working quietly +for a degree, and living the unobtrusive life which befitted his years, +the amused interest aroused by the event of father and son pursuing +their studies at the same time at the same college would have worn +itself out, and Mr. Binney might even have come to be considered in the +light of a pleasant acquaintance by Lucius's friends. He knew quite +well that his father would not be content with this humble role, and +that the intermittent sniping of which he was now the object would +develop into a regular fusillade of ridicule when Mr. Binney had had +time to spread himself a bit and become more notorious. +</p> + +<p> +He went back to his solitary rooms after hall and set himself down to +read. Poor boy, he was too dispirited to do anything else. He sported +himself in with the half-formed intention of refusing admittance to his +father if he should present himself. But up to ten o'clock, when the +college gates are shut to outsiders, no one had attempted to invade his +privacy. Soon afterwards he went to bed, having spent his first +evening at Cambridge entirely in his own society. For two days he +moped alone, keeping to his rooms as much as possible and only leaving +the college to go down to the river, where his fame was steadily +rising. His friends for the most part considerately kept out of his +way, thinking that he might be engaged in looking after his freshman +parent. But strangely enough he heard or saw nothing of Mr. Binney. +He avoided places where he was likely to meet him, and so far his +father had never once been to his rooms. +</p> + +<p> +On the third morning he determined to face the music. "If I'm to stop +up here," he said to himself—"and I can't go down now I've got a +chance of my Blue—I must make up my mind to get used to it. But it's +enough to make a fellow take to drink, or work, or something." Then he +put on his hat and went round to the "Pitt" Club. +</p> + +<p> +There was a group of men round the fire-place in the big room. +"Halloa! here's Binney Minor," said one of them. "How's your major +getting on, old man?" +</p> + +<p> +Then many agreeable pleasantries were fired off at him, while he sat on +one of the long seats and pretended to read a paper. When it was found +that the pleasantries did not amuse him, and he was taking his fate +seriously, they ceased, and by-and-bye an exodus took place and he was +left to himself. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm afraid poor old Lucy's papa is rather a trial to him," said one of +his late tormentors as they walked up Jesus Lane in the sedate and easy +manner affected by undergraduates who value their position. "What has +he come up for, any way?" +</p> + +<p> +"To look after Lucy, I suppose," said another, "but I don't know why; +<i>he's</i> straight enough." +</p> + +<p> +"Have you seen the little beggar?" inquired Blathgowrie, who was one of +the group. "He's one of the rummiest little beggars you ever saw; +rather like an elderly jockey who's got into parliament. Can't think +where Lucy gets his good looks from. His mother must have been a +ripper." +</p> + +<p> +"I saw him on the river yesterday," said a rowing man; "he was coxing a +First Trinity boat and shouting away as if he had been at it all his +life. The crew looked frightened and the coach couldn't get a word in +edgeways. I think that little man is going to afford us some +amusement." +</p> + +<p> +"If he's going to play the fool," said the first man, "that's why Lucy +looks so glum when he's chaffed, and I don't wonder at it. I must say +it's beastly hard lines on him, and he's such a good chap. Binney +major's the sort of governor one would like to keep in the background. +Here's Dizzy." +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy was on his way to the "Pitt." When he got there he found Lucius +sitting alone, looking the picture of misery. A few Bloods were +talking blatantly round the fire, and some quiet members were trying to +write letters or read the papers in other parts of the room. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, how has he been behaving?" asked Dizzy, sitting down by his +friend. +</p> + +<p> +"I haven't seen him yet," said Lucius. "I can't think why." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps he means to behave decently and keep out of the way," +suggested Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"Not he," answered Lucius. "There's something up." +</p> + +<p> +There was. When Lucius got back to his rooms he found a note on his +table. +</p> + +<p> +"Dear Lucius," it ran, "Pray what is the meaning of your not coming to +call on me? You know very well that I can't go to your rooms until you +do, you being the senior man, and there are a lot of things I want to +talk to you about. You will find yourself £10 poorer at the end of the +year for this piece of impertinence, and let me advise you to be very +careful how you behave. Though a freshman I am still your father. +Come to tea this afternoon at five o'clock. I am not to be trifled +with.—P.B." +</p> + +<p> +The miserable Lucius went to his father's rooms on his way up from the +river. Mr. Binney had been on the river, too, and had not yet +returned. Lucius had an opportunity of surveying his father's +quarters. There was nothing to show they did not belong to the most +callow freshman of eighteen. There were two large shields with the +coats-of-arms of the University and Trinity College over the +mantelpiece. There was a Trinity coat-of-arms on the coal scuttle, on +the match-holders, the pipe-rack, and every article in the room that +could reasonably bear it, as well as on every piece of crockery that +was laid out on Mr. Binney's tea-table. The usual textbooks and +note-books lay about. Lucius looked into the latter and found a feeble +attempt at a caricature of a respected lecturer, signed P.B. On the +mantelpiece were some printed cards and papers relating to certain +small clubs and societies, of which the freshman seeks membership with +much avidity, and resigns with equal enthusiasm when he has reached the +dignity of his second year. On a chair lay Mr. Binney's cap and gown. +To Lucius's horror, the stiffening of the cap had disappeared, and the +gown had been cut short. These are the unfailing signs of the +second-rate undergraduate who wishes to be taken for a sporting +character. Some misguided but radically inoffensive freshmen fall +under the influence of such ideals in their early days, and grow out of +them afterwards. But surely Mr. Binney could not have made friends +with the rowdies yet! He had hardly had time to make friends with +anybody. +</p> + +<p> +Just then Mr. Binney himself came in. He was in his boating clothes, +of which he was not a little proud. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, so you've condescended to come at last, have you?" he said. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm very sorry, father," said poor Lucius. "I'd no idea you would +stand on all that ceremony. I couldn't make out why you didn't turn +up. I thought perhaps you had made up your mind that it would be +better for us to take different lines." +</p> + +<p> +"Another ten pounds off," roared Mr. Binney, "you know what I said." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, <i>damn</i> it," said Lucius, losing patience. "I shan't have anything +left at all soon. I'd better go down at once, and have done with it." +</p> + +<p> +"How dare you swear at me, sir?" cried Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, isn't it enough to make a chap swear?" answered Lucius, almost +crying. "I've had such a jolly time up here, and now I'm ashamed to +show my face. And as if that wasn't enough you take money off me every +time I open my mouth." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney relented. He was fond of his son, and Lucius looked very +unhappy. "I'll let you off this time," he said, "but don't let it +occur again. Now, what I wanted to say was that I'm not getting on as +I expected. Not a soul has called on me except some one who wanted a +subscription for a missionary society. I was very pleased to give him +a sovereign, of course, but I could hardly take his call as a friendly +visit. I have picked up a few friends of my own year at hall and +elsewhere, but that isn't what I want. I want to know the +distinguished men. You know them. Why haven't you sent some of them +to call on me?" +</p> + +<p> +"Look here, father," said Lucius. "It's no use going on like this. +The people I know don't go in for all this 'calling' rot, and I'm not +going to ask them to. If you <i>must</i> know that particular lot, you'll +meet some of them in my rooms occasionally, and if they take to you, +well, you'll get to know some of them. But you must take your chance +just like anybody else. It's no good pushing things." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, there's sense in that," said Mr. Binney. "You can have a little +dinner in your rooms. I'll pay for it, and I daresay we shall be very +good friends before the evening is out. I suppose you couldn't get +Muttlebury up for it, could you? You said you knew him. I should like +to meet Muttlebury." +</p> + +<p> +"No, I couldn't," said Lucius shortly. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, any blues will do. I should like to be able to tell Minshull I +dined with a party of blues. He only knew one, and that very +slightly—Widgeon, who put the hammer or something last year. He was +at Peterhouse—Pothouse, I mean. By-the-bye, I suppose there's no harm +in my looking up men of my own year, is there?" +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose not, not if you use your sense about it." +</p> + +<p> +"Now, what about the 'Pitt' Club? When is the election?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know. In about a fortnight I should think." +</p> + +<p> +"Is my name down for it?" +</p> + +<p> +"No." +</p> + +<p> +"And why not, pray?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've only been there once since I came up." +</p> + +<p> +"Put it down at once, then, and don't lose any more time about it. +Minshull had never heard of the 'Pitt,' but I have learnt since I came +up that all the best known people belong to it. And I should like to +belong to the A.D.C. too." +</p> + +<p> +"I daresay I can manage that for you. I'm on the committee now, and we +are always very kind; but, look here, father, there's not the slightest +chance of your belonging to the 'Pitt' or the A.D.C. either if you +don't keep yourself in the background at first. And whatever made you +knock the stuffing out of your cap like that? It's only the rowdies +whom nobody respectable has anything to do with who go in for that sort +of thing." +</p> + +<p> +"Minshull told me that if you wore a new cap and gown everybody took +you for a smug," said Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +"Minshull's a fool," said Lucius, with withering scorn. "You'd better +take my advice about things like that, not his. And I should buy +myself a new cap if I were you." +</p> + +<p> +A few days after, Dizzy gave a dinner. Most of his guests had arrived +and were discussing the vagaries of Mr. Binney, who by this time had +become a public character, when Blathgowrie arrived in a state of some +perturbation. +</p> + +<p> +"I say, you fellows," he said, as he came in. "This business will have +to be stopped. I've had that little bantam in my rooms since seven +o'clock. I'm not going to stand it." +</p> + +<p> +"What did he want?" +</p> + +<p> +"Said he hadn't seen me in hall, and wondered what had become of +me—thought he'd pay me a friendly call." +</p> + +<p> +"What did you do?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I was civil for the sake of poor old Lucy. But I didn't get him +out of the room for an hour, and he said he was coming again. Hang me +if I ever saw such a pushing little scug." +</p> + +<p> +"Lucy ought to tell him to keep to himself." +</p> + +<p> +"Bless you, <i>he</i> can't help it," said Dizzy. "He gets his screw docked +every time he suggests such a thing." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I call it a beastly shame. But if Lucius can't do it, somebody +else must." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll do it," said Blathgowrie. "I'm not shy. He's bound to turn up +again soon; said we were fellow freshmen, or some such rot, and ought +to know one another better. He'll know <i>me</i> better before I've done +with him. Hush, here's Lucy." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney was not elected to the "Pitt" Club, and Lucius had not been +able to bring himself to propose his name for membership of the A.D.C., +preferring to lose the £10 of income which his father knocked off for +each rebuff, than to put his colleagues to the awkward necessity of +either rejecting his nomination, or of electing his father to clubs +where he was not wanted. Nor did his dinner bring about that measure +of popularity which Mr. Binney had hoped for. Lucius asked four of his +tried friends, who were very polite, very much bored, and retired +early. Dizzy might have saved the situation, but Dizzy had gone up to +town with an <i>exeat</i>. Mr. Binney had by this time joined the Union and +spoken twice. He could talk of nothing else and looked forward with +confidence to filling the President's chair. +</p> + +<p> +A few nights afterwards he again invaded Blathgowrie. It was about +half-past nine, and that estimable nobleman had a select party of about +twelve playing the unallowable game. +</p> + +<p> +There was an abashed silence when little Mr. Binney entered and flung +his cap and gown on a chair. +</p> + +<p> +"Good evening, Mr. Binney," said Blathgowrie. "We are engaged in a +quiet game of whist. Could you make it convenient to call on another +occasion?" +</p> + +<p> +"Don't mention it, my lord; don't mention it," said Mr. Binney. "I'll +make myself comfortable and look on. I should like to see whist +played. It is a game I am unacquainted with, although I recollect when +I was a young fellow Snap and Old Maid used to be favourite games in +the family circle." +</p> + +<p> +"They're favourite games up here," said Blathgowrie, "and so are Hunt +the Slipper and Puss in the Corner. We'll play Puss in the Corner when +we've finished this, and you shall be poor pussy. What, not going yet, +Astley!" +</p> + +<p> +But first one and then another of Blathgowrie's friends was afraid he +must be going, and in ten minutes he was alone with Mr. Binney, putting +up the cards with unimpaired cheerfulness. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm very sorry I've disturbed your game," said Mr. Binney, whom this +wholesale exodus had considerably amazed. +</p> + +<p> +"Not at all, Mr. Binney, not at all. My friends are in the habit of +retiring to rest early. They're all anxious to catch the worm +to-morrow, you know." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't call me Mr. Binney," said Peter; "call me Binney. We're of the +same standing, you know." +</p> + +<p> +"So we are, Binney," acquiesced Blathgowrie. "Well, Binney, how do you +find yourself? Pretty well, thank you?" +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney began to grow suspicious. +</p> + +<p> +"I hope, sir, I'm not intruding on you," he began. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Binney," said Blathgowrie, "to tell you the plain truth, you do +intrude confoundedly." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney started up out of his chair. +</p> + +<p> +"Pray sit down, Binney," said Blathgowrie. "I am commissioned by my +friends and your son's—Lucy's, you know—to tell you we consider +you're behaving in a devilish mean and shabby manner to him. He's done +his best for you, you know, but to tell you the truth we don't care for +you, Binney. You're not quite our sort, you know—-a year or two older +perhaps—and we really can't have you poking in your nose where you're +not wanted. There are plenty of nice quiet Johnnies about who'll be +very pleased to make your acquaintance, especially if you feed them +well, but speaking for the unworthy people whom you honour with your +attentions at present, I beg to inform you that they are declined with +thanks." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney arose in his wrath. He was somewhat violent and altogether +incoherent. Blathgowrie handed him his cap and gown and opened the +door for him. +</p> + +<p> +"Good-night, Binney," he said, "mind the step;" and Mr. Binney +disappeared down the staircase. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap07"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER VII +</h3> + +<h4> +MR. BINNEY SPEAKS AT THE UNION AND MAKES A DISTINGUISHED ACQUAINTANCE +</h4> + +<p> +Mr. Binney went out of Blathgowrie's lodgings and into the street in a +white heat of indignation. His blood boiled within him at the +indignity to which he had been subjected. Was it possible that he, +Peter Binney, the founder of a great commercial house, the Bloomsbury +ratepayer, the almost successful candidate for the London County +Council, had been told in so many words by a mere slip of an impudent +boy that his society was not wanted by him and his callow friends? +What next! he wondered. As if he cared for their contemptible society! +Pshaw! It was the other way about. If they had had the slightest idea +how his name was respected in the City, they would have sung a <i>very</i> +different tune. He wouldn't have their acquaintance now, or join their +precious clubs if the committee went down on their bended knees and +begged him to do so. He flung into his rooms burning with anger +against the whole insolent crew of them, and most of all against his +son, Lucius, whom he unjustly accused of being the disloyal cause of +his late reverse. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, Binney, I thocht ye wouldn't be long, and I'd just wait for ye," +said a voice with a strong Scotch accent, from the depths of Mr. +Binney's armchair. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, that you, M'Gee!" said Mr. Binney. "I'm pleased to see you. But +you'll excuse me for being a little upset. I've just undergone a piece +of monstrous impertinence from my Lord Blathgowrie, and I scarcely know +how to contain my anger." +</p> + +<p> +"Toch!" exclaimed M'Gee. "What for do ye want to mix yourself up with +such trash? I've come to talk to you about the Union. Sit down, man, +and listen." +</p> + +<p> +M'Gee, like Mr. Binney, was a freshman, and like Mr. Binney again, had +come up to Cambridge many years later than the average young man enters +upon his University course. He was the son of a Highland gillie, and +had succeeded with incredible difficulty, as far as money was +concerned, in gaining a degree at a Scotch University. But that had +not sufficed for him. He was ambitious, and extremely tenacious of +ideas. He had early made up his mind to bring his brains to the market +of Cambridge, and at Cambridge he accordingly found himself at the age +of thirty-seven, with a scholarship at St. John's College, and nothing +else upon which to support himself except his determination to succeed +to the highest honours that Cambridge could afford. He had joined the +Union with a shrewd and resolute eye to the President's chair, but the +lighter social success which held such a charm from Mr. Binney's point +of view he regarded with the most lofty scorn. Self-contained and +self-reliant as he was, however, he was not entirely without a human +weakness for sympathy and encouragement in his aims, and had fixed upon +Mr. Binney, as one who shared with him some of the accidents of his +position, with whom to indulge in the occasional luxury of discussing +his ambitions. +</p> + +<p> +"I wouldn't give a thought to these young 'bloods,' as they call them," +said M'Gee. "They'll be of no use to ye. They make a big splash while +they are up here, but when they go down they're no better than dirt." +Here M'Gee snapped a bony finger and thumb. "I'm no saying that I'd +like to be nothing but a worker in Cambridge," he went on. "You keep +to yourself for three years and you come out Senior Wrangler at the end +of it, and they put your picture in the papers. And then you go down, +and what glory do you get from it? There's aye one way of getting +yourself known here, if you're a man of brains, and that's at the +Union. Go round the rooms and look at the pictures of the Presidents +from the beginning. Why, man, there's not a dozen of them that isn't +known to the world at large. That's fame. And it's the sort of fame +that's worth having. Colloguing wi' lords an' that is a puir thing to +it." +</p> + +<p> +"You're right, M'Gee," cried Mr. Binney, springing up, "You're right. +A lord! What's a lord and all his hangers-on? Froth! Dregs! Dirt! +as you rightly remark. I won't have my boy associating with such." +</p> + +<p> +"Leave your boy alone," said M'Gee. "He is a boy, and does very well +as he is. You and I are men, and we'll make use of this place which +most of them don't know the value of. Study the questions of the day, +give a lot of preparation to your speeches, and speak every time the +house sits. Force 'em to take account of you and you'll come out top." +</p> + +<p> +"I will," said Mr. Binney, now greatly excited. "I <i>can</i> come out top +if I want to. I know I can. You and I will be carried down to +posterity, M'Gee, as two of the greatest Presidents the Union has ever +had. To-day's Monday. To-morrow I speak on the vaccination question. +I don't take any interest in it, but I'll get the subject up thoroughly +in the meantime, and my speech will surprise them." +</p> + +<p> +And so Mr. Binney changed his social aspirations, and wrote long +letters to Mrs. Higginbotham describing the acclamations with which he +was received when he rose to speak at the Union, and painting in vivid +colours the honours paid to the occupant of the President's chair, that +chair which had been filled by so many illustrious men. +</p> + +<p> +He and M'Gee spoke every Tuesday in that term. M'Gee was intolerably +dogmatic, metaphysical and long-winded, always heard the secretary's +bell ring before he had half finished his argument, and invariably +emptied the house of all but the long-suffering officials whenever he +rose to his feet. Mr. Binney as surely filled it. He was a wind-bag, +but a wind-bag who delighted his audience in the same way as a monkey +on an organ is a source of appreciation not so much for its innate +humour as for the unstudied expression of its personality. It was +quite true that Mr. Binney roused the applause of the assembly. The +incipient statesmen lolling on the benches or writing notes on their +knees or strolling up to have a word with the President in his seat of +state, cheered him on, laughed uproariously at his witticisms as well +as at his studied and serious periods, and could never have enough of +him. It was a long time since any speaker at the Union had amused his +audience so well, and he was in the seventh heaven of delight at his +popularity until the elections for the officers at the end of the term, +when both he and M'Gee stood for the committee, and appeared at the +bottom of the list, M'Gee with thirty votes and Mr. Binney with six. +This was a serious blow to him, and he began to realise that he had +been looked upon as a buffoon. +</p> + +<p> +But before this other things had happened. Although debarred from the +society of those with whom he had at first tried to ally himself, Mr. +Binney had contracted many acquaintanceships with men of his own year +and others who did not place the value of their friendship very high. +The boys fresh from school who had come up at the same time as himself +looked upon him as a great joke, ate his breakfasts and luncheons and +occasional dinners, and asked him to their own in return. As he showed +himself anxious to be considered one of themselves, they obliged him, +with perhaps more familiarity and slappings on the back than they +usually made use of to one another. But Mr. Binney enjoyed it and felt +he was getting on famously. He greatly appreciated the tales of daring +which freshmen love to tell one another, about exciting runs from +avenging Proctors, and smart, one-sided conversations with Deans, in +which the freshman is always represented as using such witty and +convincing arguments that the Dean can only sit and listen, and is glad +to get rid of him at last at any price if he will only allow the +management of the college to remain in its present inefficient hands a +little longer. Mr. Binney had not as yet emulated any of these deeds +of daring, for he still looked upon the authorities with considerable +awe, and was turning his attention for the most part towards getting +his work ready for the first part of the Littlego and maintaining his +reputation at the Union. But he thought them very fine for all that, +and it was not long before he fell. +</p> + +<p> +Among his fellow-freshmen was one, Brandon, a Rugby football-player, +who had once or twice played for the University. He was not a Blue +yet, but he was the next best thing to it, and Mr. Binney cultivated +his society in the intervals of his more serious pursuits. Brandon had +a friend called Howden who was a Blue, a great, noisy, good-natured, +ignorant ox, who was in constant danger of being sent down for his +numerous breaches of discipline. +</p> + +<p> +Howden came into Brandon's rooms one morning to fish for a dinner, his +affairs being in a chronic state of financial depression. He used no +unnecessary finesse in stating his ends. +</p> + +<p> +"I've taken my name off hall to-night," he said, "and don't know where +to feed. Got anything going, Brandy?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going to dine with Binney," said Brandon. "You'd better come too." +</p> + +<p> +"What! that stuck-up ass!" said Howden. "Didn't know you knew him. +No, thanks. I don't mix with Bloods." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I don't mean Lucy Binney," said Brandon, "I don't know him. The +bantam's my pal." +</p> + +<p> +"What! that little old man!" exclaimed Howden. "Whatever do you want +to go and dine with him for? He'll report you to the dons if you make +a row, and I don't care for dining where I can't enjoy myself." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear chap," said Brandon, "you can make as much row as you like. +He'll be all the better pleased. He's a tremendous little sportsman. +He gives you the best fizz and as much as you want of it." +</p> + +<p> +"The deuce he does! All right, I'll come, Brandy. I don't know him. +I suppose that don't matter." +</p> + +<p> +"Not a bit," said Brandon. "I'll make that all right. 19A Jesus Lane, +eight o'clock." +</p> + +<p> +"Right you are," said Howden. "Don't forget. I shall turn up." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney was as pleased as Punch when he learnt that he was at last +going to be honoured by the company of a Blue, and made an excuse to +write a note to Minshull in which he casually mentioned that he was +expecting Howden, "who plays back for the 'Varsity," to dinner that +night. +</p> + +<p> +Howden came and made himself agreeable to his host. Mr. Binney was +delighted to find that such a great man was not inclined to stand on +any ceremony. The rest of the party were freshmen, who were also +inclined to treat the great Howden with deference, but in the course of +the dinner the deference vanished, and the company got hilarious and on +perfectly good terms with one another. After dinner they "ragged," and +played a little game of "Soccer" with a sofa cushion, in the course of +which Mr. Binney got the wind knocked out of his body, and was not +sorry when his landlord came up to inform him that the chandelier in +the room below had fallen down. +</p> + +<p> +"Let's go round and rag old Tubby Vane," said Howden. +</p> + +<p> +Vane was another football Blue, and lived in college. So the party +moved round in a body to the New Court. Vane kept on the third floor, +and was out, so his visitors were baffled for the moment. +</p> + +<p> +"There's old Miniken keeps below," said Mr. Binney, who was enjoying +himself to the full in this distinguished company. "Let's go and rag +<i>him</i>." +</p> + +<p> +Miniken was a Union light, a quiet reading man, when he was not +thundering forth Radical views in the debates. Mr. Binney did not know +him very well, but wished to display the brilliant Howden to his +astonished gaze. +</p> + +<p> +"All right," said Howden. "Never heard of him, but I daresay he keeps +very good whisky. Come on." +</p> + +<p> +Miniken's oak was sported. +</p> + +<p> +"He's skulking," said Howden. "Let's kick his oak in." +</p> + +<p> +"Hi! Miniken! Come out of that, you old beggar," yelled Mr. Binney; +but all was silence. +</p> + +<p> +Howden took a short run and kicked in a panel. Mr. Binney took a short +run at the same panel, and got his foot wedged. When he had been +extricated with unnecessary violence by his companions, a combined +assault was made upon the oak, which presently gave way. The rooms +were empty. +</p> + +<p> +Howden turned up the lights and made a search for something to drink, +which was unsuccessful, as Miniken was a teetotaller. Then they "made +hay" of his rooms, and, after completely changing their aspect, left, +to avoid an interview with a porter who was coming up the staircase to +see what the disturbance was about. Mr. Binney never doubted but that +Miniken would be quite as amused as themselves when he came back, and +not a little flattered at receiving a visit from the august Howden, if +he found out who was responsible for the altered appearance of his +apartments. +</p> + +<p> +When Miniken did return he was naturally annoyed at the discovery of +what had taken place. He obtained from the porter the names of his +invaders, and sat down and wrote a letter of complaint to the Senior +Dean. Then he put his room to rights and went to bed. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime Mr. Binney went home, greatly pleased with his +evening's entertainment. Before retiring to rest he wrote a full +account of it to Mrs. Higginbotham, and expatiated on the popularity +that must accrue to him from having made a friend of Howden, who, +before parting from him, had assured him that he was one of the best +fellows he had ever met, and that he would stick by him and come and +dine with him whenever he liked. +</p> + +<p> +The next day Mr. Binney was requested to call on the Junior Dean at a +specified hour. He did so with some inward trepidation, and waited in +the ante-room where a secretary was at work, who informed him that the +Dean was engaged, but would see him in a few minutes. Presently steps +were heard on the staircase, and to his surprise Lucius entered the +room. +</p> + +<p> +"Halloa! you hauled too?" said the little man with a sheepish grin. +"What for?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know. Chapels, I suppose," said Lucius, who had heard of his +father's escapade, and whose face was covered with a deep blush. +</p> + +<p> +"I hope we shan't get gated," said Mr. Binney. "What are you going to +say to the old chap?" +</p> + +<p> +Before Lucius had time to reply the Dean's door opened, and Mr. Binney +was summoned into the presence of the "old chap," who had been in +frocks when "Binney's Food for Poultry" was first becoming known. +</p> + +<p> +"Sit down, Mr. Binney," said the Dean, who appeared unaccountably +nervous. "I see you have not kept the requisite number of chapels +since the beginning of term. Is there any reason for that? I see by +my list that you have not been once to chapel on a Sunday." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney breathed a sigh of relief and drew himself up. +</p> + +<p> +"I prefer to attend my own place of worship on the Sabbath," he said, +twisting his cap by the tassel. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! you are perhaps a Nonconformist," said the Dean. +</p> + +<p> +"I am," said Mr. Binney; "and I'm not ashamed of it." +</p> + +<p> +"No reason to be, Mr. Binney," said the Dean. "I needn't trouble you +any more on that score then," and he made a pencil note on the paper +before him. "But there is another matter," he went on, "which, I +confess, it surprises me to have to bring before a man of +your—er—standing. I understand that you and some others broke in the +door of Mr. Miniken's rooms last night, and took most unwarrantable +liberties with his furniture. I could hardly believe it, but I am +assured that it is so." +</p> + +<p> +"It was a mere freak, sir," said Mr. Binney boldly. "I went round with +Howden—the football Blue——" +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't bring in anybody else's name," said the Dean. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, we went round to call on—on another football Blue, but he was +out, and as old Miniken, who is a friend of mine, happened to live +below him, I said, 'Let's go and rouse him up.' He was sported, so we +kicked in his oak for a lark. We didn't mean any harm. Of course, I'm +quite willing to pay for repairing the door." +</p> + +<p> +The Dean passed his hand over his mouth. +</p> + +<p> +"That you will have to do, of course, you and the others between you," +he said. "But I may as well tell you, Mr. Binney, that we don't +recognise such larks here. If you want to behave like a troublesome +boy, you had better go somewhere else. You are gated at eight for a +fortnight, and don't let me hear of any such piece of folly again, or +you won't get off so easily." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney took himself off feeling rather ashamed, but still a little +pleased with himself. "Gated at eight for a fortnight," he said, as he +joined his son in the ante-room, where Blathgowrie had also made his +appearance. +</p> + +<p> +"Serve you right, you little ass," said Blathgowrie as Lucius entered +the presence chamber. "Now run along and play." +</p> + +<p> +"You were not with your father, I think, when the door in the New Court +was broken in?" said the Dean. +</p> + +<p> +"No, I wasn't," said Lucius shortly, his face a deep red. +</p> + +<p> +The Dean threw a quick glance at him. +</p> + +<p> +"Is your father—?" he began, and then stopped. +</p> + +<p> +"Off his head?" said Lucius. "I don't know. I never thought he was +until he came up here. I know <i>I</i> shall be, pretty soon, if this goes +on." +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't mean that," said the Dean, "I was going to ask if he intended +to stop here until he takes a degree." +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose so, if he isn't sent down first," said Lucius bitterly. +</p> + +<p> +The Dean could not disguise a smile. "Don't get downhearted about it, +Binney," he said kindly, "we've all got our little trials to bear. One +of mine is having continually to ask undergraduates why they don't come +to chapel. I see you haven't kept a single chapel this term. How is +that?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was afraid I might meet my father," said Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +The Dean smiled again. +</p> + +<p> +"Your father has conscientious objections to joining in our services," +he said, "and I'm afraid I couldn't accept that as an excuse in any +case. Have you been anywhere instead?" +</p> + +<p> +"I go to King's sometimes." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I think you had better come to Trinity sometimes too in the +future. Good-night, Binney." +</p> + +<p> +His introduction to Howden was the beginning of Mr. Binney's fall from +steadiness. He soon made the acquaintance of other athletes of similar +character to Howden, and was very proud of being seen about with them. +These accommodating gentlemen had no sort of objection to his being +constantly in their company, so long as he fed them generously and put +no check on their boisterous behaviour when he was with them. And Mr. +Binney was far from wishing to do this. The new cap which he had +bought under Lucius's directions was soon exchanged for a very old and +battered one. Howden and all his friends were rowdies, and Mr. Binney +in his mild way became a rowdy too. +</p> + +<p> +One Tuesday evening towards the end of the term, Lucius found himself +in the gallery at the Union listening to a debate on the motion: "That +this house views with alarm the growing tyranny of University +officials," and sat dejectedly through an uproariously applauded speech +from his father, in the course of which Mr. Binney inquired "why a +fellow shouldn't smoke in cap and gown if he wanted to," and was twice +called to order for alluding to "the progginses." +</p> + +<p> +"Come out of this; it makes me sick," he said to his companion. They +went out and strolled slowly down Jesus Lane to Edwards's billiard +rooms. Opposite the "Pitt," Mr. Binney passed them with two of his +noisy friends, carrying his gown on his arm. He did not notice them, +nor a Proctor who was coming along Park Street, and Lucius had the +gratification of seeing his father stopped at the corner, and +peremptorily ordered to put on his gown by the Proctor. Mr. Binney did +as he was told, taking off his gown again when the Proctor had turned +his back, and was let into his lodgings feeling himself the very devil +of a fellow. +</p> + +<p> +After his first escapade with Howden, Mr. Binney was a little upset by +a letter he received from Mrs. Higginbotham in answer to the one in +which he had given her an account of the proceedings. +</p> + +<p> +"You must not let yourself be led away by your high spirits," wrote +Mrs. Higginbotham, "and pray be careful that these new grand young +friends you have made do not lead you astray. I should like you to +keep a good character with your masters and bring home a good report at +the end of the term. My dear father often used to say that he would +rather my brothers won the conduct prize at school than any other, and +they always did so, which pleased my father very much until he +discovered that they used to buy the prizes themselves out of their +very liberal allowance of pocket money and write their master's name in +them, which was not right, and earned them a whipping from Mr. +Wilkinson who was at that time the head of the Lewisham Academy for +Young Gentlemen, where they were educated, as well as another from my +father, which they told me was far the worse of the two, as I can quite +credit, because my dear father, who made his own way in the world, had +been employed in early life in a furniture warehouse, and among his +duties was that of beating carpets." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney wrote in answer that little occurrences such as the one in +which he had taken part were common in Cambridge and increased the fame +of those who inaugurated them, and rebuked Mrs. Higginbotham for +talking of his "masters." "The 'Varsity is not a school, my dear +Martha," wrote Mr. Binney, "and we are allowed a great deal of freedom +to amuse ourselves as we please." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney and Lucius now saw very little of one another, but before +Mr. Binney had allied himself with Howden and his crew, Lucius had paid +him a visit one afternoon and found a young man with a long, solemn +face not unlike Minshull's sitting on Mr. Binney's sofa. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, Lucius," said Mr. Binney, "I'm glad you have come. This is your +mother's cousin, John Jermyn, whose father you may have heard me speak +of as a respected clergyman in Norfolk. John tells me he has gained a +scholarship at Queens' and I am very glad to hear it—very glad. It is +most laudable of him. We must go and call on him when we have time. +Let me see, where is Queens'? That little college at the end of the +Backs with a wooden bridge, isn't it? Quite so. A very nice little +college indeed. I should have liked to have been at Queens' myself if +I hadn't been at Trinity. Pity you couldn't come to Trinity, John. +However, we can't all be at the best college, can we?" +</p> + +<p> +After a little more patronage from his uncle, John Jermyn took his +leave. +</p> + +<p> +"You must look that young fellow up, Lucius," said Mr. Binney, "and he +tells me his sister Elizabeth is at Girton. They both came up this +term. A clever family. You must go and call on her too—I believe +it's allowed—I don't care about going out there myself. Their mother +was a great friend of your dear mother's when they were girls together. +We never saw much of her after she was married, for her husband held +his head high, although I have never heard that he was at Trinity or +any good college as a young man. It is our turn to hold our heads high +now, but you must certainly call on John and Elizabeth, and show them +that we are not too proud to recognise our relations." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius did call on John Jermyn soon afterwards and asked him to lunch. +The two young men found they had very little in common and the +acquaintanceship dropped. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap08"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER VIII +</h3> + +<h4> +THE NEWNHAM GIRL +</h4> + +<p> +The morning hours in Cambridge are for books, the afternoon for +exercise, and the evening for social intercourse. So, at least, the +majority of the undergraduate members of the University regard them, +and sometimes throw in an extra hour or two of work between tea and +dinner. Of course there are those who work all the evening as well as +all the morning, and there are others who do not work at all; but the +morning for lectures and books is a general rule, and one that has few +exceptions, however squeezed up the morning may be between late +breakfast and early luncheon. If you go into the Great Court of +Trinity, let us say about ten minutes to eleven in the morning, you +will find it, comparatively speaking, deserted. Quite deserted it +never is, unless in the dead hours of night, and not always then; but +now its chief occupants appear to be the bed-makers, who empty their +pails down the gratings, or stand for a few minutes' gossip by their +respective staircases. Every now and then an idler passes through in a +leisurely manner, or a don scurries across the grass in a terrible +hurry. White-aproned cooks from the college kitchens collect plate and +crockery from the various gyp-rooms and carry them away in green boxes +balanced on their heads. Tradesmen's boys, their baskets on their +arms, pass from one staircase to another, quite unawed by their +surroundings, whistling as if their errands were taking them down a +street of numbered houses instead of to the studious rooms of a +venerable college, for centuries devoted to learning. But of the +undergraduate life which is so busy in the courts of a college at other +times of the day there is very little, for most undergraduates are +listening to lecturers or coaches, or reading in their own rooms. +</p> + +<p> +But the hour strikes and everything is changed. Men in gowns of blue +or black, with note-books under their arms, come pouring out of the +lecture-rooms into the court. Interspersed with them are the +lecturers, laden with books, their long gowns and ribbons flying; and +most curious of all, little groups of girls stand about the court +waiting until it is time for another lecturer to appear and dart +hurriedly into the room where his wisdom is to keep them entranced for +the next hour. How horrified our grandfathers would have been could +they have pictured girls and men sitting in the same lecture-room +to-day, and how incredulous, could they have been told what a very +little difference such an unforeseen arrangement would make in the +daily life of their colleges. For the women are already in Cambridge. +They have their own colleges, and if they have not yet their own +lecturers, they make very good use of ours. And, strange to say, +nobody takes much notice of them, or realises that they are there at +all, except when they form their little groups round the college +doorways, or when their names are read out before those of the men in +the Senate House, or when they want something which Cambridge with all +its chivalry is not quite prepared to give them. +</p> + +<p> +One such little group of girls was standing by the Trinity Chapel one +bright November morning in the first term of Lucius's second year, +waiting for the learned gentleman who was to lecture to them during the +next hour on some subject connected with the Classical Tripos. The +learned gentleman was a little late and all the other lecturers had by +this time penned their flocks and were busily engaged in feeding, and +in some cases shearing them. The men who were booked for the same +lecture as the girls were standing in twos and threes a little distance +away, or strolling up and down the flagged pathways. At ten minutes +past the hour the lecturer was seen approaching at a hurried pace from +the direction of Neville's Court, and a minute later, girls, men, and +lecturer had disappeared, and the Great Court had settled down again to +its normal morning condition of dignified calm. +</p> + +<p> +One of the girls was conspicuously attractive. She wore a neat costume +of blue serge and a hat that showed up the gold of her pretty head. +Her eyes were blue and innocent, her little nose had a mischievous tilt +to it, and her mouth was like Cupid's bow. These last named +attractions were not visible to Lucius Binney, who sat at the corner of +a desk a few rows behind her; but he had a good view of the soft curves +of a delicate tinted cheek, and a little shell-like ear perched +coquettishly underneath the wavy brown hair, and, to do him justice, +these beauties were not unappreciated by him, for he paid a good deal +more attention to them than to the dulcet tones of the learned +lecturer. It was now about the middle of the Michaelmas term, and +Lucius had already sat in the same corner and looked at the same girl +three times a week since the beginning of term, eleven times in all, +and each time he looked his sense of the beautiful was more satisfied +than before. Besides minor varieties the girl sometimes wore another +costume of grey-green cloth and a felt hat to match, with a woodcock's +tip in it. Lucius was like the lover in Tennyson's poem who speaks of +his lady's dresses:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Now I know her but in two,<br /> +Nor can pronounce upon it,<br /> +If one should ask me whether<br /> +The habit, hat and feather,<br /> +Or the frock and gipsy bonnet<br /> +Be the neater and completer;<br /> +For nothing could be sweeter<br /> +Than maiden Maud in either."<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +He sometimes spoke of her to Dizzy, who attended the same lecture, and +whose admiration of the girl was æsthetically great, but had not +succeeded in penetrating his feelings. These two would hang about the +court, chatting unconcernedly together, while she went out through the +Great Gate with her companions. After the first week, when Lucius's +appreciation of her charms had begun to bite a little, she sometimes +gave him the merest glance out of the corners of her blue eyes as she +passed him. There seemed to be a trace of amusement lurking in the +glance, and Lucius understood that his admiration, although by no means +obtrusive, had been observed—and dared he hope in some measure +accepted?—by its object. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Dizzy, old man, she really <i>is</i>—that girl!" sighed Lucius, after +silently watching the blue serge coat and skirt and the fair hair under +the little hat disappear round the corner. "She really <i>is</i>—" +</p> + +<p> +What she really was did not transpire, but Dizzy quite understood and +agreed. +</p> + +<p> +"She's a topper," said Dizzy. "I can't say fairer than that. She's a +topper." +</p> + +<p> +"Have you noticed those little fluffy curls on her neck?" inquired +Lucius. "With most girls they stick out straight and look as if they +ought to be tucked in somewhere. But hers don't." +</p> + +<p> +"Why don't you take a snap-shot at them with a Kodak in the +lecture-room?" suggested Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius did buy a Kodak after this, and stayed away from the charmed +lecture-room one morning with a heavy heart, in order to take +photographs of the girl as she went through the court to and from the +lecture. He ensconced himself in a friend's rooms on the kitchen +staircase, the nearest position he could gain, for he did not want her +to see him standing in the court; but after pressing the button +feverishly six or eight times, and waiting impatiently for three weeks +until the other people had done the rest, he was rewarded with several +curious pictures of fog effects, only one of which showed a scene which +could be recognised as the Great Court, with a few dark little spots +some miles away, which Lucius interpreted as the girl and her +companions leaving the college, but did not gain much satisfaction from +the possession of them even with the help of a magnifying glass. +</p> + +<p> +The girl was a Newnhamite (hideous word!). Lucius and Dizzy knew that +much, though they could not discover her name. She must have known +theirs, for the lecturer was in the habit of calling them over after +each lecture. Unfortunately he omitted to do so in the case of the +lady students. +</p> + +<p> +"It's just my luck, you know," said Lucius disconsolately. "I've got a +cousin of sorts at Girton. I ought to have looked her up before now—I +promised the governor I would—and I'd have done it pretty quick, you +bet, if she had had the sense to go to the other place." +</p> + +<p> +"What is she like?" asked Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know. I've never seen her. She is a sister of my cousin at +Queens'." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I should look her up if I were you. She may be pretty," said +Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you seen my cousin at Queens'?" +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy had, and acknowledged that the inferences were not encouraging. +</p> + +<p> +"Still there's no telling," he said. "She may be a regular topper." +</p> + +<p> +"Her father's a country parson," said Lucius, "and she has never been +anywhere. I don't see the fun of tramping out to Girton to see a fat +girl with spectacles." +</p> + +<p> +"And a space between her belt and the top of her skirt with hooks and +eyes showing," added Dizzy. "No, I agree with you it isn't good +enough, although, of course, she may be a topper, you can't tell." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius did bicycle out to Girton before the end of the term along a +straight and appallingly hideous road, only to find Miss Jermyn "not at +home" at the end of it, and then dismissed his cousin Elizabeth and +Girton College from his mind, and indulged himself in roseate dreams of +the Newnham girl instead. Although he was constantly plunged in shame +at the behaviour of his father, and was gradually growing poorer and +poorer as time went on, owing to Mr. Binney's relentless views on the +subject of filial conduct, his first term at Cambridge in the +companionship of his father was not altogether an unhappy one. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of it Mr. Binney went in for the first part of his Little-go +and failed ignominiously, for his work had greatly deteriorated since +he had been admitted to the friendship of Howden and the rest. But the +disquieting news did not reach him until he had left Cambridge at the +beginning of the Christmas vacation, and that blow was not added to the +one caused by his failure at the Union, and another which befel him at +the end of term in the shape of an interview with his Tutor. Mr. +Rimington looked grave as Mr. Binney entered his presence, and shook +hands with him without his usual smile. +</p> + +<p> +"Sit down, please, Mr. Binney," he said. "I didn't send for you when I +heard about that foolish affair in Mr. Miniken's rooms, because I +thought you must have taken part in it against your will, and I +couldn't but believe that nothing of the sort would happen again. But +I learn, to my surprise, that you seem to have made a—a specialty of +that sort of behaviour, and however unpleasant the duty may be, I must +remonstrate seriously with you on the course you have adopted here." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney's mouth was dry. Mr. Rimington's tone was more conciliatory +than that of the Junior Dean, but the latter, after his first few +words, had treated him just like any other undergraduate, while Mr. +Rimington addressed him as a middle-aged gentleman who had been making +a fool of himself; and Mr. Binney disliked this above all things. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington paused, and Mr. Binney felt he was expected to speak. +</p> + +<p> +"I was gated for that affair of Miniken's, sir," he said with a gulp, +"and the subject ought to be at an end. It was foolish, perhaps, but +it was all done in good part, and I had no idea the man would make such +a fuss about it. Since then I am not aware of having done anything to +bring my conduct under the notice of the officials of the college." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington heard him out in grave silence. "You have done nothing +that has actually had to be punished," he said, "but if you imagine, +Mr. Binney, that your conduct has not come very seriously under the +notice of the officials of the college, you are mistaken. Behaviour +that would not call for much remark from a boy of eighteen or nineteen +is a different matter in a man of your age. For one thing it is +demoralising in the extreme to the undergraduates with whom you +associate. It is a very disagreeable task to have to point this out to +you, and I must say that it surprises me exceedingly that there should +be any necessity for my having to do so." He paused so as to give Mr. +Binney a chance of speaking, who, however, took no advantage of his +opportunity, but sat gazing on the carpet. His attitude seemed to show +that he was taking his Tutor's remonstrances to heart, but a slight +frown on his brow and the set of his mouth belied that assumption. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you anything to say, Mr. Binney?" asked the Tutor. +</p> + +<p> +"I should like to hear what <i>you</i> have got to say first, sir," said Mr. +Binney. "Then I will give utterance to my opinions." +</p> + +<p> +"Very well," said Mr. Rimington. "Then I had better say what I have +got to say in as few words and as strongly as possible. When we talked +over your coming up here as an undergraduate in the spring, I pointed +out that it would hardly be fair to your son to be under your constant +supervision, and I pointed out other reasons why I thought you should +reconsider your decision. You did not agree with me, and the +objections were not strong enough to induce the college to refuse your +application when you persisted in making it. No man in his senses +could have foreseen that at the end of your first term, your son, who +has been here over a year, should bear a high character in the college, +while you, his father, should be giving us a great deal of trouble in +matters of conduct. If that could have been foreseen I need scarcely +say that we should not have admitted you. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, look here, Mr. Rimington," said Mr. Binney, with his most +uncompromising air. "I take great objection to your manner of speaking +to me. My son I refuse to discuss. As far as I myself am concerned, +you have acknowledged that with one exception, for which I have paid +the appointed penalty, my conduct has not been such as to have called +for any special remark, supposing I had been of the age of the ordinary +undergraduate with whom you have to deal. I take my stand on that +statement. These references to my age are offensive to me. I am here +in the position of an ordinary undergraduate, and I demand fair +treatment as such. That puts the matter in a nutshell." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington kept his temper. "You seem to forget, Mr. Binney," he +said quietly, "that no ordinary undergraduate would be permitted to +speak to me in those terms. You take advantage of your age, which I +think is about the same as mine, to address me as an equal, but wish it +to be ignored entirely in my estimation of your behaviour. That, of +course, is an unreasonable demand, and one that I cannot entertain. I +sent for you to remonstrate with you on the course that you have seen +fit to adopt. But as you have taken my remonstrance so badly, I must +point out to you that my powers go far beyond a mere remonstrance, and +if you are incapable of seeing yourself in the wrong and mending your +ways, the college will have to think very seriously of asking you to +take your name off the books." +</p> + +<p> +"Then, sir," said Mr. Binney, now very angry, "I have to inform you +that I shall not comply with the request of the college. I am here, +and here I shall remain. The treatment I have received I consider +infamous. I demand to be let alone. I shall keep on the right side of +the law in the future, as I have done in the past, and I challenge—I +<i>dare</i> the college to touch me. Let me remind you, Mr. Rimington, that +this University has been thrown open—yes, <i>open</i>, sir. The old +iniquitous Test Acts have been done away. One man has as much right +here as another. If I am interfered with further, I will raise such a +storm throughout the country, that not only Trinity College but +Cambridge University shall tremble in its shoes. I will wish you +good-morning, sir; and let me advise you to take my words to heart," +and with this Mr. Binney took himself out of his Tutor's rooms, and +went straight round to the Union to write a fiery letter of indignation +to the <i>Daily Chronicle</i>, unmasking the unwarrantable interference with +the liberties of the subject practised by the authorities of a +"well-known college in a well-known University." His letter was not +inserted. So the storm he had threatened to raise delayed its raging +for the present. +</p> + +<p> +After his departure, Mr. Rimington pondered for some time on his course +of action, and then wrote the following letter:— +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +"DEAR MR. BINNEY,—I enclose the <i>exeat</i> which you will require in +order to enable you to leave Cambridge for the Christmas vacation. I +have dated it for to-morrow. You will, I think, on consideration +regret your manner towards me in our conversation of this morning, and +I shall be glad to receive any expressions of regret you may feel +inclined to make. I must also repeat my statement that it is +subversive of all discipline in the college that a gentleman in your +peculiar position should constitute himself a leader in disorderly +behaviour, and warn you that if such behaviour is persisted in you will +not be allowed to remain here.—Yours sincerely, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +"ROBERT RIMINGTON."<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +"Let 'em try to remove me, that's all," said Mr. Binney, when he +received this very moderate communication. "They'll be sorry for it +all their lives. <i>Exeat</i> dated for to-morrow! What does he mean? I +don't want to go down to-morrow. A piece of impertinence! I shan't +go." +</p> + +<p> +But on consideration Mr. Binney did go down on the appointed day, and +having arrived at a more reasonable frame of mind after a few days' +residence in Russell Square, wrote to Mr. Rimington that he regretted +that he had been led in the heat of the moment to express himself in a +way he could not justify, and that, while he still stood his stand on a +position which, he thought, would prove to be unassailable, there was +no reason why he and Mr. Rimington should not agree to differ in a +perfectly friendly and gentlemanly way. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap09"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER IX +</h3> + +<h4> +ME. BINNEY GIVES A DINNER AND RECEIVES A REBUFF +</h4> + +<p> +Mr. Binney took advantage of his unexpectedly early arrival in town for +the Christmas vacation to pay a surprise visit to Mrs. Higginbotham. +He found that good lady seated by her drawing-room fire as on the +occasion of that momentous visit with the account of which this history +opens. With the glad cry "Peter!" "Martha!" these two ardent souls +were locked in a close embrace, which afforded great gratification to +themselves, and not a little to the parlour-maid, who had delayed her +exit in order to satisfy herself as to the warmth of their greeting. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham, "I did not expect to see you +for another two days at least. How is it you have managed to come home +for your holidays so early?" +</p> + +<p> +"We don't have holidays at Cambridge, Martha," said Mr. Binney; "we +call them vacations. And of course we can come away when we like—that +is if the dons will let us." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, it is a very agreeable surprise to see you, Peter," said Mrs. +Higginbotham. "But how you have altered! Why, you have cut off your +beautiful whiskers!" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Mr. Binney. "Fellows don't wear whiskers at Cambridge. It +is considered old-fashioned. How do you like the change, Martha?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know," said Mrs. Higginbotham, doubtfully. "But you should +have asked <i>my</i> leave first, you know, Peter, before taking a step like +that," she added, archly. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney enjoyed this. He became facetious, affected to dig Mrs. +Higginbotham in the ribs, and jocularly cried, "Oh! you saucy little +skipper!" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham was scandalised. +</p> + +<p> +"Peter!" she exclaimed, "surely you forget yourself." +</p> + +<p> +"Pooh! Martha," said Mr. Binney, "don't be old-fashioned. That's the +way young men go on now-a-days." +</p> + +<p> +"Is it?" said Mrs. Higginbotham, only half reassured. "I don't think I +much like it. It isn't respectful. But I'm so pleased to see you +back, Peter, that I don't mind <i>how</i> you go on. And you certainly do +look younger, somehow—I suppose it is from cutting off your whiskers. +But do you know I think it makes you look <i>smaller</i> too." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah!" said Peter, "I used to be sorry I was rather short. I'm not now. +It's a distinct score. I've got a great piece of news for you, Martha. +I'm going to steer the first Lent boat next term, if all goes well. +The first boat captain told me the other day that I was the most useful +man they'd got, if I didn't play the fool and kept my head; he said if +I steered well in the Lents I should probably steer the first boat in +the Mays; and that means, Martha, that next year I shall very likely be +cox of the 'Varsity and get my Blue. Think of that, now!" +</p> + +<p> +"Lor!" said Mrs. Higginbotham, "And very nice too, I'm sure. But why +are you wearing a tie with the Oxford colours instead of the Cambridge?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh dear! Martha!" exclaimed Peter with some irritation. "Will you +<i>never</i> understand these things? These are the First Trinity colours. +Nobody can wear the Cambridge colours unless he's a Blue. And I'm not +a Blue yet." +</p> + +<p> +"Aren't you?" said Mrs. Higginbotham. "Well, never mind, I'm sure you +will be some day if you do your lessons—I mean your work well, and +satisfy the Professors. And now, Peter, there is one little thing that +I wish to speak to you about. That time you got into trouble. I was +very grieved to hear about that. My poor dear father always used to +say——" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, bother your father, Martha!" exclaimed Peter. "What did <i>he</i> know +about life at the 'Varsity? I told you in my letter that nobody at +Cambridge thinks anything of a lark like that except the fusty old +dons—and who cares for what <i>they</i> think?" +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't polite of you to say, 'bother my father,' Peter," rejoined +Mrs. Higginbotham with some warmth. "He was a very good father to me, +and I never gave him a moment's trouble till the day of his death. I +did think that after the lesson you had received—being locked into +your bedroom every night at eight o'clock as I gathered from your +letter—that you would have seen the folly of such behaviour. But I am +sorry to see from this paper which you sent me the other day, that this +is not the case." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham took up from the table at her side one of those +ephemeral journals which come and go at the Universities with almost as +much frequency as the successive generations of undergraduates who +produce them. This one was called <i>The New Court Chronicle</i>, and had +been started by one of Mr. Binney's Rugby football acquaintances. In +it was a weekly letter in imitation of those that appear in some of the +London Society papers, and one paragraph ran as follows:— +</p> + +<p> +"Millie has come up here for a week to see something of her younger +brother, Arthur, who has entered at Trinity, and is quite a <i>persona +grata</i> with the 'smart' set at that most <i>chic</i> of all the colleges. +He took his brother-in-law to a dinner at Mr. 'Peter' Binney's rooms +one night, and Sir George came away quite charmed with the <i>verve</i> and +<i>élan</i> of his diminutive host. Sir George says that there was not so +much wine drunk as in his days at Cambridge, but what there was, was of +excellent quality and seemed to <i>go further</i>. Little Mr. Binney +insisted on making a speech, and caused uproarious merriment by +remarking that he <i>saw double</i> the number of friends he had invited, +but he was pleased to welcome them all, and as many more of the same +sort as liked to come. Owing to the sultriness of the weather, Mr. +Binney was unfortunately seized with a slight indisposition before the +party broke up, but he was comfortably settled in bed by his guests +before they left, and Millie met him in Jesus Lane the next morning +looking as sprightly as ever, and had a short conversation with him, in +which he humorously remarked that he had never turned his back upon don +or devil yet." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham opened the paper and pointed to this paragraph. +</p> + +<p> +"It was indeed a grief to me to read that, Peter," she said, "and how +you could send it me of your own accord passes my comprehension. +Inattention to study I can overlook, and thoughtless levity of conduct +I can pardon—but <i>drunkenness</i>! Oh, Peter, I never thought it would +come to <i>that</i>." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney had been getting very red during the passing of this +exordium on his conduct. +</p> + +<p> +"Pooh, Martha!" he burst out at last. "How could I have known that you +would take it seriously. You don't think all that rubbish is true, do +you? It is all made up and put in for a lark. I sent it to you +because—well, because I thought it would please you to see how popular +and well-known I have become in Cambridge. If you don't like it, throw +it in the fire." +</p> + +<p> +"But if it is not true, Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham—"and I'm sure +I'm very much relieved to hear that it is not—why do you allow such +things to be put into a paper? It distinctly says you 'saw double,' +and I have always understood that to be an unfailing sign of—of +<i>tipsiness</i>. I call it disgraceful taking away a gentleman's character +like that. Supposing it should come round to Dr. Toller's ears, or +some others of the congregation? And you a deacon, too, and so much +looked up to." +</p> + +<p> +"Dr. Toller!" echoed Mr. Binney with much scorn. "What do I care for +Dr. Toller? <i>He's</i> not a 'Varsity man; he doesn't understand these +things." +</p> + +<p> +"He has got a University degree," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "Indeed, +<i>two</i> degrees. He is always put in the bills as Rev. Samuel Toller, +B.A., D.D." +</p> + +<p> +"That's nothing," said Mr. Binney. "He wasn't at Oxford or Cambridge. +The rest don't count." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, don't they! I didn't know," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "But, at any +rate, I shouldn't allow those things to be said of you, Peter, +especially as they are not true. It might get about, and I shouldn't +like that. Now, tell me about some of your speeches at the Young Men's +Christian Association. I am so glad you——" +</p> + +<p> +"The Union, Martha! The Union!" shouted Mr. Binney, annoyed beyond +bounds at Mrs. Higginbotham's consistent inability to grasp the true +inwardness of University life. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, the Union then," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "It's the same thing, +isn't it?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, it's <i>not</i> the same thing," said Mr. Binney, and then he calmed +down and gave Mrs. Higginbotham a full and true account of the building +up of his forensic ambitions, and their sad and disastrous downfall. +Mrs. Higginbotham was full of sympathy and womanly consolation. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, Martha," said Mr. Binney at last, "what a treasure I have gained +in your love! My barque will never suffer shipwreck so long as the +haven of your true woman's breast is open to it." +</p> + +<p> +"I trust not," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "And now let us have tea up. I +expect Annie will have toasted some muffins." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius arrived home the next afternoon, and brought Dizzy with him for +a few days. The point of view from which he had hitherto regarded his +father had been so rudely altered by Mr. Binney's behaviour during his +first term at Cambridge that Lucius had been unable to face the ordeal +of the first few days alone with him in Russell Square. +</p> + +<p> +"You know what the governor is, Dizzy," he had said. "It won't be so +bad if you are here for a bit, and we can have a good time. I've got +<i>some</i> money left, although my allowance has been getting smaller and +smaller ever since I came up to Cambridge. We needn't be at home more +than we like, and we can go about a bit and see plays." +</p> + +<p> +"I should like to come, old man," said Dizzy. "I've got a bit of +splosh laid by, too. I'm an economical beggar and I've let my bills +stand over till next term. We'll have a rare old time. I suppose your +governor won't want to go about with us, will he?" +</p> + +<p> +"I shouldn't be surprised," said Lucius. "You can never tell what +nonsense he'll be up to now." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, well, we must make the best of it, if he does," said Dizzy +cheerfully. "He's not such bad fun if you take him in the right way, +and I can always get on with him very well." +</p> + +<p> +"He's not your father," said Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy considerately gave thanks inaudibly. +</p> + +<p> +But when they reached Russell Square they found that a change for the +better had set in in Mr. Binney's behaviour. The responsibilities of a +householder and the head of a large business-house had temporarily +settled down on him again. He went to the City every day for an hour +or two, and spent a good deal of his spare time in the company of Mrs. +Higginbotham, leaving the young men pretty well to their own devices. +He had been brought up to regard theatre going as injurious to the +morals, and, while he did not attempt to prevent Lucius from enjoying +himself in his own way, the remains of an early prejudice prevented his +accompanying him. So Dizzy spent a pleasant week with his friend, and +as he was always cheery and obliging from morning to night, Mr. Binney +was delighted with his company. +</p> + +<p> +One evening towards the end of Dizzy's visit there was a little +dinner-party in Russell Square. The guests were Mrs. Higginbotham, Dr. +Toller, his wife and daughter, and a sprightly middle-aged lady called +Miss Tupper, who had been a friend of the late Mrs. Binney, whose place +she was generally supposed to be desirous of filling. Mrs. +Higginbotham and she were very cordial to one another when they met, +but there was a delicate sub-acid flavour about their conversation +which hardly seemed in accord with the indelible sweetness of their +respective smiles. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney sat at the head of the table with Mrs. Toller on his right, +and Mrs. Higginbotham on his left, Lucius at the foot, flanked by Miss +Tupper and Miss Toller. The Reverend Doctor and Dizzy faced one +another. +</p> + +<p> +"And how do you like University life, Mr. Binney?" inquired Mrs. Toller +sweetly, when her husband had recited an impromptu grace, and infused +as much originality into it as possible, and the company had settled +themselves down to soup and agreeable conversation. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney, of course, was anxious to talk about Cambridge, but he did +not quite like a question which drew attention to his novice state. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, all University men like University life, Mrs. Toller," he replied. +"Though, of course, some are not in a position to appreciate it as much +as others." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Mr. Binney, I'm sure <i>you</i> are in a position to appreciate it," +said Miss Tupper gushingly. +</p> + +<p> +"I hope I am, Miss Tupper," said Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +"Who are the people who do <i>not</i> appreciate it?" asked Mrs. Toller. +</p> + +<p> +This gave Mr. Binney the opportunity he wanted of expatiating on the +prestige to be gained by membership of a good college, and a wide +circle of distinguished athletic acquaintances. Mrs. Toller seemed +much interested and put many questions in a tone of innocent inquiry, +which had the effect of drawing Mr. Binney into a somewhat fuller +account than he would otherwise have given of his manner of life during +the past term. Miss Tupper was enchanted with everything she heard. +She even clapped her hands. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, do tell me more, Mr. Binney," she cried. "It is all so <i>young</i>. +I simply love to hear about it. Lucius, why don't you back Mr. Binney +up? I believe you are a very wicked boy when you're at college, for +all you are so quiet at home. Oh, fie!" +</p> + +<p> +Lucius made no reply to this sally. The old feeling towards his father +which had been coming back slowly during the last few days was +disappearing again as the conversation developed, and he ate his dinner +in shamed silence. Miss Tupper became more and more sprightly, but she +devoted herself to Mr. Binney although she was two places away from +him. She was the daughter of a solicitor, while Mrs. Toller's father +had been a bookseller, and she wished to show that lady that the +manners of the upper classes possess a greater breadth and freedom than +those of the people with whom Mrs. Toller had mixed all her life. Mrs. +Higginbotham was very anxious that Mr. Binney should not give Dr. +Toller reason to suppose that his habits had become at all loose during +his short residence at Cambridge, and tried to bring the conversation +down to the more sober aspects of University life, but the Doctor was +enjoying a very good dinner and was inclined to be tolerant. He even +told some anecdotes of his own salad days when he had been a student at +Homerton College, but the mild devilry of his proceedings took such a +long time to narrate, and amounted to so very little when it was +reduced to speech, that his anecdotes fell very flat. Mrs. +Higginbotham gave them rather more than their due share of +appreciation, but Mr. Binney listened with ill-concealed impatience, +and instantly capped each story with a much more highly-spiced one of +his own, while Miss Tupper actually had the temerity to snub the great +man, which exasperated his wife to such an extent that she half made up +her mind to bring her unseemly conduct before the next church meeting. +</p> + +<p> +Under cover of this conversation Dizzy had been trying to get on terms +with his neighbour. Miss Toller was very young and very shy, but +undoubtedly pretty. Dizzy, that discriminating critic of feminine +beauty, had run his eye cursorily over her upon his first appearance. +"Pity she ain't turned out properly," he had said to Lucius. "She's +worth it. I should like to get her a proper evening frock instead of +that dowdy thing, and take her somewhere to get her hair waved. I +could turn her into a regular topper in no time. Give her a few +lessons on how to walk, and teach her to hold her hands properly and +you wouldn't know her when I'd finished with her." +</p> + +<p> +"Shouldn't want to; you'd only spoil her," said Lucius. "She's a nice +enough little thing as it is. I've danced with her at children's +parties ever since I can remember." +</p> + +<p> +"Come now," said Dizzy, "you wouldn't like to see the Newnham beauty +turned out like that of an evening." +</p> + +<p> +"That's different," said Lucius, with a blush. +</p> + +<p> +Poor little Miss Toller would have sunk into the earth with shame if +she had heard herself thus discussed. This was her first dinner-party +end she had looked forward to it with tremulous but pleasurable +anticipation. She was going to meet Lucius, and Lucius had always +stood for her as an embodiment of everything that was worthy of +admiration in the opposite sex. She had recently been put in command +of her own small dress allowance, and had expended a good part of her +quarter's income on the frock that Dizzy had criticised so +contemptuously. Lucius had not taken so much notice of her as she had +expected, considering that they had been friends all their lives; and +he seemed unhappy! Poor boy! With feminine intuition she instantly +divined something of the state of things that existed between him and +his father. Hitherto she had regarded Mr. Binney with that respect due +to his age and his standing in her father's congregation. Suddenly she +found herself hating and despising him with a fervour that surprised +even herself, and she would have given anything she possessed, even her +new frock, to be able to console Lucius without appearing to understand +why he was so downcast. Lucius spoke very little to her, although she +sat next to him, and she was too shy to address him first; but now she +had to collect her wits and cope with the embarrassing young man who +sat on her left, who seemed more at ease than she could possibly have +conceived any young man being in the awe-inspiring surroundings of a +set dinner-party, and who spoke and behaved in quite a different manner +from anybody she had ever met before. +</p> + +<p> +"Oysters!" began Dizzy, as an opening to conversation. "I don't know +whether you know that if you eat a dozen oysters and drink a +wine-glassful of brandy after them, you die." +</p> + +<p> +Miss Toller had never eaten oysters in her life, nor drunk brandy +except under strong maternal pressure for medicinal purposes, but she +looked rather frightened. "Do you?" she said. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Dizzy, "the brandy turns the oysters into leather. +Leather's the most indigestible thing you can swallow, although of +course nobody would swallow it if they could help it. But the funny +part of it is, that if you eat a piece of cheese the size of a +walnut—I don't know why <i>walnut</i> particularly—it melts the leather +and then you are all right." +</p> + +<p> +Miss Toller thought this information a trifle indelicate, but made no +comment on it, except the tacit one of leaving her oysters untasted. +</p> + +<p> +"Been to any plays lately?" inquired Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"No," said Miss Toller, "my father doesn't approve of theatres." +</p> + +<p> +"Doesn't he?" said Dizzy. "Quite right too. I'm sure the nonsense +that's put on the stage now and called a play is enough to make you +ill. And then they talk about dramatic art! Why, there's more art in +a Punch and Judy show. Lucius and I have been going the rounds for the +last week, and I'm hanged if I want to go and see another play till I'm +seventy. Louie Freer's the only artist among the whole lot of 'em. +Ever heard her sing 'Mary Jane's Top Note'? Oh, no, I forgot. You +don't care for theatres. But you should have seen Lucius at the A.D.C. +He was only a maid-servant—but <i>such</i> a maid-servant. He had letters +from all the Registry Offices in Cambridge offering him situations. +Every Sunday out and as many followers as he liked. Didn't you, +Lucius?" +</p> + +<p> +"He's talking nonsense, Nesta," said Lucius. "He always will talk +whether he's got anything to say or not." +</p> + +<p> +"But did you dress up as a maid-servant, Lucius?" asked the girl. +</p> + +<p> +"He did," said Dizzy, "and his waist was twenty-two inches round. His +name was Mary." But here Mr. Stubbs's attention was demanded by his +other neighbour, Mrs. Toller, who had learnt enough of Mr. Binney's +late doings to satisfy her for the present, and had caught a few scraps +of the conversation addressed to her daughter, and thought it a trifle +free. +</p> + +<p> +"And what may you be going to do, Mr. Stubbs, when you leave college?" +she asked with a slight touch of asperity. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, 'pon my word, I don't know," replied Dizzy, who may have been a +little surprised at the directness of the inquiry, but didn't show it. +"I leave all that sort of thing to my old father, you know. He's got +plenty of ideas on the subject, but he changes 'em about once a month. +I fall in with 'em all and give 'em up directly the new one comes +along. It keeps him out of mischief, having something to think about, +and it don't hurt me. I think it's the Church just at present—or is +it brewing? No, brewing was last term. My old father read in the +papers that the country spends more money on its drink bills than on +anything else, so he thought that if I was put in a position to enable +me to receipt a few of 'em, it wouldn't be a bad thing. However, he +gave up the idea for some reason or other, and now we're turning our +attention to the Church." +</p> + +<p> +"And do you feel that you have any vocation for the ministry?" asked +Mrs. Toller. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! I shall rub along all right," said Dizzy. "I've an old uncle +who's got several livings in his gift. He'll give me one if I want it, +I dare say. There's one up in Lincolnshire,—not much money, but a +nice house, and five hundred acres of rough shooting—you don't often +get that sort of thing with a rectory nowadays—and only about fifty +people in the parish. I shouldn't mind going there, and I dare say I +could if I wanted to. My old uncle's place is in the next parish, and +I could have a very good time." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Toller listened with inward disapproval, but the mention of +Dizzy's uncle with his patronage and his "place" disarmed her rancour, +she being as arrant a snob as ever walked, and she said with much +sweetness: +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you think, Mr. Stubbs, that the system of patronage adopted by +the Established Church is a little—what shall I say?—a little—" +</p> + +<p> +"I <i>do</i>," said Dizzy with warmth. "I quite agree with you. I think +it's perfectly monstrous. Now, look at my old uncle—well, perhaps I +oughtn't to let out family secrets—but I assure <i>you</i> that for that +old man to be able to present people to livings—though, mind you, he's +a very nice old man, and I've nothing to say against him—well, upon my +word, it's enough to make you turn Particular Baptist or +something—never quite know why Baptists should be more particular than +anybody else—-oh, I <i>beg</i> your pardon, Mrs. Toller—'pon my word I +forgot we weren't of the same way of thinking—clumsy beggar, always +putting my foot in it—but you're not what they call a <i>Particular</i> +Baptist, are you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly not," said Mrs. Toller. "The Particular Baptists were——" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so. Yes, I remember. And I know, of course, that Dr. Toller is +a most distinguished leader of religious thought—<i>everybody</i> knows +that. I ought to have remembered that he didn't happen to belong to +the same Church as I do—stupid of me. But, you know, the truth of it +is, Mrs. Toller, that when a man gets up to the top of the tree, well, +he may be Archbishop of Canterbury, or a Cardinal or—or a man like +your husband, and to a fellow like me who don't follow these things +very closely, well, there isn't much difference, don't you know." +</p> + +<p> +"You feel that, do you?" said Mrs. Toller, much gratified. "Of course +<i>we</i> think so; but church people are usually so bigoted. I'm sure it's +a great pleasure to meet a member of the Establishment who is so +broad-minded." +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy felt that he had completely retrieved his error, and proceeded to +amplify his ideas. +</p> + +<p> +"I think it's such rot being narrow-minded, don't you know," he said. +"Look at the Buddhists. They're just as good as we are. I knew a +fellow once who became one. He was fond of a good glass of wine. He +had to knock <i>that</i> off, and become a teetotaller. He liked shooting, +but he had to give it up, because he said he couldn't take life—he +never had taken much before, but he used to hit 'em sometimes by +mistake, and he didn't want to run any risks. Of course, he didn't eat +meat. Then he hadn't been married very long, and there was a baby he +was very fond of. He began to bring that up as a Buddhist too, and fed +it on apples and filbert nuts. Don't know what his wife was doing all +the time, but it died in a month. <i>He</i> didn't care. He just went on. +Now, that's what I call religion, you know, and I should admire that +fellow just as much if he were a Mormon or whatever he was. Wouldn't +you?" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Toller was not prepared to go quite so far as that, but she went +part of the way, and went very amiably. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose you have never heard my husband preach, have you, Mr. +Stubbs?" she asked. +</p> + +<p> +"No, I haven't," said Dizzy. "And it's a funny thing, because I've +been in London a good deal. It's the people who come up from the +country who see and hear everything that's going on. Now, you wouldn't +credit it, but I've actually never been to the Zoo." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Toller did not quite see the connection of ideas, but her +amiability did not decrease. +</p> + +<p> +"He preached a very fine sermon last Sunday," she said, "on 'The +Municipal Duties of an Enlightened Electorate.' The papers were full +of it. The <i>Daily Chronicle</i> said it was 'an epoch-making sermon.'" +</p> + +<p> +"I can quite believe that," said Dizzy. "If a man talks sense in the +pulpit people will listen to him. If he talks nonsense they won't." +</p> + +<p> +"That is so true," said Mrs. Toller, and felt quite sorry when the time +came for the ladies to leave the table, for Dizzy had by this time +completely wiped out the memory of his little slip. +</p> + +<p> +Driving home after the entertainment was over Mrs. Toller laid down the +law. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Binney seems to have been behaving very foolishly at Cambridge," +she said. "I gathered something of the sort from Mrs. Higginbotham, +and wished to find out if it was true. I could see that she was +ashamed of the nonsense he talked at dinner, and I felt for her, poor +thing. I shall go and see her to-morrow and tell her so. The way Miss +Tupper egged him on was disgraceful. She ought to be ashamed of +herself, at her age, too. If I were you, I should allude to it in your +prayer on Sunday, Samuel. It will not seem so pointed as if you were +to do it in the sermon, and there is never any telling what Miss Tupper +may do. She might leave the chapel altogether if she is offended, and +if she once took to going to church she'd give herself such airs that +there'd be no holding her." +</p> + +<p> +"I think Mr. Binney is a very silly little man," said Miss Toller +vindictively. "I believe he is making poor Lucius miserable." +</p> + +<p> +"Nesta!" exclaimed Mrs. Toller, astonished at this outburst from her +usually submissive daughter, "I cannot allow you to speak like that of +your elders. Mr. Binney is one of your father's greatest supporters. +Pray express yourself with more respect. And as for Lucius—I've no +patience with him. I've gone out of my way to be kind to that boy, and +he shows no more gratitude than if I was a mere nobody—hardly troubled +himself to answer when I asked him how he was getting on with his +studies, and actually turned his back upon me when I began to give him +a little advice about the temptations of University life. Now if he +were like that nice young Mr. Stubbs it would be different. Stubbs is +not a genteel name, but I believe he is very well connected, and he +certainly has a well-bred manner of speaking. Samuel, I have asked him +to come with us and hear you preach on Sunday evening. He said nothing +would please him better. He has never been in a Nonconformist place of +worship, and he will certainly come if he is still in town. I should +be careful what I said about the Establishment if I were you. I should +like him to carry away a good impression of your preaching." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll be sure and remember it, my dear," said Dr. Toller drowsily from +his corner of the carriage. "Nesta, dear, write a note for me when we +get home—'Mr. Stubbs—no rubs.' Then I shan't disgrace myself." The +Reverend Dr. Toller cultivated his small gift of humour; he found it +necessary in order to live comfortably with his wife. +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy took his departure the next morning, but not before a very +painful scene had occurred in Russell Square. The <i>Times</i> which graced +Mr. Binney's breakfast table, and was now eagerly searched each morning +for news of the Little-go examination, at last published the list. Mr. +Binney's name was not in it. +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy came down to find a dejected figure sitting at the head of the +table, while the disregarded urn which had filled the teapot and +flooded the tea-tray was beginning to flow over the surrounding tract +of tablecloth. As he entered the room Mr. Binney bounded from his seat +with a yell of pain, and turned off the tap. The physical anguish of +the moment diverted his mind from the mental shock he had undergone, +but the numbing realisation of failure soon settled on him again. +"Stubbs!" he said mournfully, "it is all over. I shall never hold up +my head again." +</p> + +<p> +"Lor, Mr. Binney!" exclaimed Dizzy. "It can't be so bad as that, is +it? Shall I ring for a servant to bring a cloth and mop it up?" +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't that," said Mr. Binney, with the calm born of despair. "I +have failed to pass the Previous examination. I am a disgraced man." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, that's all, is it?" said Dizzy, helping himself to devilled +kidneys off the side table. "I thought you'd scalded yourself. Why, +bless my soul, I knew a fellow who had eight shots at the Little-go and +didn't pass it then. I had three goes myself, and here I am as merry +as a cricket." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, you are young!" said Mr. Binney. "You've got your life before +you. I shall never get over it." +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless he did get over it, and the failure did him good. He went +to Mrs. Higginbotham and confessed all. He saw now, he said, that he +had wasted his time and opportunities. He had consorted with idle and +graceless companions, and made himself a reproach to the authorities of +the college. He had brought this appalling result on himself, and he +deserved it. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Higginbotham gave the repentant prodigal full absolution. She +advised him to write to Mr. Rimington, and promise full amendment of +his ways. Mr. Binney did not take her advice in this particular, but +he did summon to his aid the learned Minshull, and set himself steadily +to read for several hours a day during the Christmas vacation in order +to make up for lost time. Lucius found the house very dull. An +unexpected invitation from his cousin John Jermyn's mother came for him +to spend the week after Christmas at the Norfolk Rectory, but +remembering his cousin John he did not feel attracted, and receiving +another invitation the day after to the ancestral home of the Stubbses +he accepted that, and refused the other. He went up to Cambridge +early, for there was a chance of his rowing in the University boat, and +he wanted to keep a term before going to Putney, if he should be +fortunate enough to be wanted there; so he saw next to nothing of his +father for the remainder of the vacation. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap10"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER X +</h3> + +<h4> +"THE NEW COURT CHRONICLE" +</h4> + +<p> +Mr. Binney embarked on his second term at Cambridge with the full +intention of acquitting himself with credit and freeing his character +from the suspicion of unruliness which had unfortunately become +attached to it. He was very much in earnest about his work, and mapped +out a course of arduous study which was to be continued right up to the +following June, when he hoped to make up for his first failure by +taking a high class in both parts of the Little-go. The Union he was +determined to let severely alone. His pride had had a severe rebuff +from the indignity which had been put upon him in the elections. "They +can do without <i>me</i>," said Mr. Binney to his fellow-aspirant, M'Gee. +"Very well, then, I will show them that I can do without <i>them</i>." +</p> + +<p> +"Toch! man, have another try," said the indomitable M'Gee. "Rome +wasn't built in a day." But he said it without enthusiasm, for the +path to success, according to his ideas, did not lie through the +follies and extravagances to which Mr. Binney had treated his audience +during the previous term. +</p> + +<p> +"I shall never speak at the Union again, M'Gee," said Mr. Binney +firmly. And he kept his word. +</p> + +<p> +He was a little troubled as to what course he should adopt with Howden +and the rest of his athletic friends. He did not want to drop them +altogether, but he wanted to make it clearly understood that the open +restaurant which he had previously conducted for their benefit was now +closed, and he had a suspicion that its closing might mean the +discontinuance of their favour, and a consequent loss of prestige to +himself. He gave a dinner on the second evening of the term, or +perhaps it would be more correct to say that Howden, who professed +himself delighted to meet his old friend once more after five weeks' +absence, gave it for him in his rooms, and Mr. Binney paid the bill. +It was quite as noisy as any that had gone before it, but Mr. Binney +did not add to the gaiety. He made a speech in the course of the +evening—he was rather fond of making speeches—in which he informed +his friends that he was about to embark on a severe course of study and +found he would not be able to have the pleasure of entertaining them +quite so often as before on account of the time that was thrown away +over these festivities. What he said was cheered to the echo, which +gratified him not a little, but Howden, who followed him, did not +appear to have taken his remarks in the least seriously, and assured +him in a voice broken with emotion, that they would all stick by him +and never forsake him. This was not quite what Mr. Binney wanted, but +Howden's affecting periods caused such an outburst of enthusiasm that +he succumbed to the general goodwill and allowed the matter to stand +over for the present. +</p> + +<p> +On the next afternoon, however, it was decided for him. He was sitting +over his books for an hour before hall when he received a call from +Mirrilees, the Captain of the First Trinity Boat Club. Mirrilees was +an acquaintance of whom Mr. Binney might reasonably have been proud if +he had ever shown the slightest wish to have anything to do with our +hero apart from his official position as captain of the boat club to +which Mr. Binney belonged. He was tall and well set up, a really fine +oar and a thoroughly good fellow in the best sense of that misused +term. He was not everybody's friend, even in the exceedingly tolerant +atmosphere of undergraduate Cambridge, and athletes of the type of +Howden disliked him, and said so freely; but Mr. Binney had kept his +own opinion on this point, and if there was one man in Cambridge whom +he respected with all the force of the hero-worship which was a part of +his still undeveloped character, it was Mirrilees. He therefore rose +to his feet, and showed by his nervousness of manner that he fully +appreciated the honour done to him. +</p> + +<p> +Mirrilees sat down on the sofa and refused the proffered suggestion of +refreshment. His keen eyes glanced round the room and then rested on +Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +"I told you last term," he said, "that we might want you to steer the +first Lent boat. You're a light weight and you've got a head on your +shoulders. At least you haven't lost it yet on the river, although you +seem to have done so occasionally elsewhere." +</p> + +<p> +What Mr. Binney suffered at that instant in the way of remorse is +beyond description. This was a very different thing to Mr. Rimington's +strictures on his conduct. He made no reply, but hung his head. +</p> + +<p> +"Now I've come to offer you the place——" Mr. Binney revived a +little—"but on certain conditions. I am not going to have the cox of +any boat I've got anything to do with making himself more ridiculous +than he is by nature. We shall be laughed at, of course, for having a +man of your age in the boats at all. I don't mind that as long as +that's all there is to laugh at. What I'm not going to stand is your +making yourself the butt and crony of every drunken rowdy in Cambridge. +I say what I've got to say perfectly straight as captain of the club to +one of its members who may turn out useful to it. If you lay it to +heart and don't take offence I shall have done what I wanted to do. If +you don't like such plain speaking, say so, and I'll clear out, and we +need never speak to one another again." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney's choler had shown signs of rising during this very plain +and unvarnished statement of the light in which Mirrilees regarded him, +but the hint with which the address had closed brought it down again. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't take offence," he said slowly, "though I'm not used to—to——" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, perhaps I put it a bit too strong," said Mirrilees, "but if I +were you I shouldn't have anything more to do with Howden and that lot. +I hear that they were all here last night again as usual, and that's +why I'm talking to you now. They're only sponging on you and making +you appear a fool all the time. If you steer the first Lent boat this +term—and mind, though I make no promises, that's intended to mean the +first May boat <i>next</i> term—you'll have to train with the rest, and +that will mean knocking off all these diversions; and you'll find +plenty of good chaps in the boat club without running after +footballers, amongst whom you can't exactly expect to shine." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm very grateful to you, Mirrilees, for your kind advice," said Mr. +Binney. "I shall certainly take it, and you may rely upon me to do my +best for the honour of the club." +</p> + +<p> +"That's all right then," said Mirrilees, rising. "Walters is captain +of your boat, as you know, but I thought I'd just come round and settle +things up. Good-night!" +</p> + +<p> +Outside in the darkness of Jesus Lane, Mirrilees smiled continuously. +"Good Lord!" he said to himself. "Fancy talking like that to the +father of one of your pals! But it was the only way, and I thought +he'd stand it somehow. I rather fancy I've done Lucy a good turn. But +I hope he'll never know." +</p> + +<p> +He left Mr. Binney in a fervour of amended ambitions. What a grand +thing it would be to have a friend like Mirrilees, a man whom most +people turned round to look at if they passed him in the street, a man +who had already rowed two years in the University boat and would +probably row two years more before he left Cambridge, a man whose name +was known all over England. Why, it was almost as good as knowing +Muttlebury or Guy Nickalls. Lucius knew him, of course, lucky young +beggar. He wondered whether it was worth while making another attempt +to make acquaintances through his son, but the memory of Blathgowrie +and others deterred him, for Lucius's friends were not all Mirrilees's, +and he made up his mind to deserve the great man's favour by a +brilliant career as a cox, and extreme carefulness as to his behaviour +both on the river and away from it. +</p> + +<p> +And so for the best part of that term Mr. Binney's behaviour was +irreproachable. He never missed a lecture or an appointment with his +Coach, and the amount of work he got through in the privacy of his +rooms was little short of marvellous. He was on the river, of course, +every afternoon, and suffered greatly from the exposure to the cold as +he sat in his narrow seat, fumbling with numbed hands at the rudder +lines, and was carried swiftly along by the combined exertions of the +eight stalwart men who faced him. His appearance always caused some +merriment on the tow-path, and the town urchins were a great trial to +him with their coarse banter, but the men of the First Trinity Boat +Club, as a rule, treated him with the respect due to his years, and, if +they did show a slight disinclination to walk up from the boats with +him, or to admit him into very close intimacy with them, he made up his +mind to bear the deprivation, trusting that it would disappear in time, +rather than fall again into the mistake he had made in trying to force +himself upon Blathgowrie and his friends. As for Howden, there was not +so much trouble with him as Mr. Binney had expected. For one thing, he +played Rugby football regularly for the University, and, although no +such arduous course of training is expected from a football player as +is necessary in the case of an oarsman, still a continuous course of +hilarious dinners is not regarded with favour by those in authority, +and Howden did not apply so often as before for sustenance at Mr. +Binney's table. Mr. Binney also conceived the idea of employing Howden +himself to keep his friends off him. He got him to talk about his +financial troubles one morning, a subject which he had before +instinctively avoided. Howden was nothing loth, and poured out a +dismal tale of debts and duns. Mr. Binney then afforded him temporary +pecuniary relief, and asked, as a favour, that Howden should inform his +friends that he, Mr. Binney, was very busy this term and would not be +able to see quite so much of them as before. Howden accepted the +responsibility, and discharged it satisfactorily, and Mr. Binney was +left in peace to carry out his reformation. +</p> + +<p> +But, alas! the old proverb still holds true: "Give a dog a bad name and +hang him." Mr. Binney was now an exemplary character, but nobody would +believe it. When his guests left his rooms after the evening already +alluded to, they got into trouble with the Proctors. It was the usual +offence of smoking in cap and gown, but Howden added to it by running +away from avenging justice. Neither Proctor nor Bull-dogs could hope +to equal him at that game, so they made no attempt to enter into +competition, but entered up his name, which was perfectly familiar to +all three of them, instead. So the only thing Howden got by his little +sprint was the exercise, which he did not require, and a double fine +the next morning, which he could ill afford to pay. His escapade also +came to the ears of his tutor, Mr. Rimington. He would not have taken +notice of such a comparatively slight offence, if such offences had not +been of frequent occurrence with Howden. As it was, he sent for him +and talked to him, and then it came out that Howden had been dining +with Mr. Binney. It will be remembered that Mr. Rimington had +expostulated with Mr. Binney on the last day of the previous term, and +this occurrence had taken place on the second day of the present term. +Mr. Rimington may therefore be excused for coming to the conclusion +that his expostulations had had very little effect, and that Mr. Binney +was proceeding on the reckless career which had made him such a +nuisance to those responsible for the order of the college. He said +nothing on this occasion, but continued to regard Mr. Binney with +feelings of strong disfavour. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney might have lived down his reputation in time had it not been +artificially sustained for him by the journal to which we have already +referred, the <i>New Court Chronicle</i>. The editor of that enterprising +publication had found that Mr. Binney's eccentricities made very good +copy for him in the previous term, and confidently looked forward to +keeping up his circulation by exploiting our hero to a considerable +extent as long as his paper should continue to run. He had had an +altercation with Lucius one night in the Great Court upon one of those +occasions when two factions meet and mutually disagree, and although, +or probably because, he had been in the wrong, the editor of the <i>New +Court Chronicle</i> bore Lucius a grudge and was not above paying it off +by ridiculing his father. He had also been one of the band whom Howden +had frequently invited to partake of Mr. Binney's hospitality, with +which he had made so free that Mr. Binney had decided that in his case +at least he would give the cold shoulder himself and not entrust the +work entirely to Howden. The journalistic gentleman had not taken this +very kindly, and a flavour of malice had crept into his witticisms, +where before there had only been good-humoured chaff. As Mr. Binney +gave him very little occasion now for humorous writing, he allowed +himself a freer hand, and invented stories against him instead of +merely repeating them. +</p> + +<p> +In order to provide a fitting framework for his humour, he published +each week a correspondence between Mr. Binney in Cambridge and an +imaginary mother in London, in which the former recounted his exploits, +and the latter commented upon them. The idea was carried out with some +humour and proved to be an acceptable feature of the paper. +Unfortunately the editor had hit upon the name of "Martha" for Mr. +Binney's supposed mother, and her letters were not so unlike Mrs. +Higginbotham's in style as quite to relieve Mr. Binney of the suspicion +that the story of his wooing of that good woman had reached Cambridge. +The only two people who could possibly be suspected of divulging it +were Lucius and Dizzy, and after the issue of the first instalment he +went angrily round to his son's rooms to see if the offence could be +brought home to him. Lucius was out, but seated comfortably in his +armchair and smoking one of his cigars was Dizzy, who must have been +the culprit, if Lucius were not, thought Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, Mr. Binney, pleased to see you again," said Dizzy genially. "How +are you feeling! Pretty toll-lollish?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, Stubbs, I am not feeling particularly 'toll-lollish' just at +present—I thank you all the same," said Mr. Binney severely. "I don't +know whether this publication has come to your notice yet?" Mr. Binney +put a copy of the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> on the table, which Dizzy took +up and glanced through with interest. +</p> + +<p> +"It ain't bad," he said, "though it's got up by a set of rotters. +Hullo, what's this—something about you, Mr. Binney, eh?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir," said Mr. Binney angrily, "and a most scurrilous piece of +work it is. My dear mother, sir, has lain in her grave these twenty +years. It is a scandalous thing that contempt should be poured on her +memory in this indecent fashion." +</p> + +<p> +"It is," said Dizzy warmly. "A most preposterous thing! I quite agree +with you. These fellows ought to be kicked, every one of them. And if +they treated my old mater in that way I'd—I'd pay somebody to do it." +</p> + +<p> +"But that is not all, sir," continued Mr. Binney. "I don't know +whether you recollect meeting a lady of the name of Higginbotham at my +table?" +</p> + +<p> +"Mrs. Higginbotham!" exclaimed Dizzy. "Why, of course I do. And a +most engaging old lady she was too. Don't know when I've met a nicer." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm obliged for your good opinion sir," said Mr. Binney stiffly, +"although I confess the idea of Mrs. Higginbotham as an <i>old</i> lady is a +new one to me. You are probably aware that her Christian name is +Martha." +</p> + +<p> +"First I've heard of it," said Dizzy, "but it's an excellent name. I +had an old aunt called Martha, and I thought she was going to leave me +a lot of money; but she didn't." +</p> + +<p> +"You are <i>sure</i> that you didn't know that Mrs. Higginbotham's name was +Martha?" asked Mr. Binney suspiciously. +</p> + +<p> +"'Pon my word I hadn't the slightest idea of it, Mr. Binney," said +Dizzy. "I shouldn't have had a word to say if you'd told me it was +Mary. But why do you ask?" +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind," said Mr. Binney. "If you give me your word of honour as +a gentleman that the fact is new to you, I accept your assurance, and +there let the matter end. Here is Lucius. I should like to have a +word alone with him, if you will permit me, Stubbs." +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly," said the obliging Dizzy, rising instantly. "Come round +and give me a look in presently, Lucy. I'll take another of those +weeds of yours if I may." +</p> + +<p> +When he had got outside, Mr. Binney turned to his son, with, "Now, sir, +what is the meaning of this?" +</p> + +<p> +Lucius glanced at the paper to which his father pointed. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I've read the rubbish," he said wearily. "It makes me sick." +</p> + +<p> +"Read it," said Mr. Binney. "Yes, I've no doubt you've read it, sir. +What I should like to know is how much you wrote of it." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know what you mean," said Lucius. "I've had quite enough mud +thrown at me since you've been up here, father. It isn't likely I +should take to throwing it at myself." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't prevaricate, sir," said Mr. Binney, his voice rising. "Did you +write it, or did you not?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not going to answer such a ridiculous question," said Lucius +sulkily. +</p> + +<p> +"Then I will answer it for you," said Mr. Binney. "You <i>did</i> write it. +I know you have always nourished evil feelings against that excellent +woman Martha Higginbotham, who I hope will one day do you the honour of +becoming your mother. Not content with wreaking your unfilial spite +against your own father who begat you, you must smirch the good name of +a lady who has always loaded you with kindness. Out upon such conduct, +I say." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius held his head in his hands. "I suppose I shall understand it +all soon," he said. "At present it sounds like one of Dr. Toller's +sermons. Is there anything about you and Mrs. Higginbotham in the +advertisements, father? I've read all the rest of the rag and I don't +remember her name being mentioned." +</p> + +<p> +"What is that name, sir?" asked Mr. Binney, pointing to the signature +of his imaginary mother's letters. +</p> + +<p> +"Martha Binney," read Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Martha Binney," echoed his father. "And in two years and a half +from now, Martha Higginbotham will change her name for Martha Binney, +if we're both spared." +</p> + +<p> +"It'll be a change for the better then, as far as she's concerned," +said Lucius. "But what <i>are</i> you driving at, father? You can't really +think I wrote that or had anything to do with it. I'm not such a scug +as all that." +</p> + +<p> +"And pray who else up here but you knows that Mrs. Higginbotham's name +is Martha?" inquired Mr. Binney. "That's my point." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I don't think it's much of a point," said Lucius. "It's a +fluke, their happening to hit upon that name. But, look here, can't +you stop this sort of thing? It's really awful the way things are +going on. I don't suppose there's anybody ever been up here who's had +such a miserable time as I'm having. Other fellows respect their +fathers. You simply don't give me a chance." +</p> + +<p> +This touched Mr. Binney to the quick. He was very susceptible to +criticism since Mirrilees had spoken to him so plainly. "I'm afraid I +have given you some reason to say that, my boy," he said. "I—I was +led away last term. I was under a wrong impression of what was the +thing and what wasn't the thing. But that is all changed now. I have +become a reading man and a boating man. I have turned the page on +everything else." +</p> + +<p> +"There was that dinner with Howden and the rest of them the very night +after we came up," said Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"It was the last dinner that Howden will get out of me," said Mr. +Binney. "I have done with him—at least I hope so." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, then, there's some hope," said Lucius. "And, look here, father, +if you've really given up that sort of thing there's a much better +chance of your getting on with the fellows worth knowing. I shouldn't +take any notice of that business, if I were you. It will die down in +time. Would you care to come to lunch to-morrow? Mirrilees is coming. +He's a good chap, you'll like to meet him." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I know him well. He was in my rooms a few days ago," said Mr. +Binney. "But I should like to meet him again very much. Yes, I'll +come, Lucius," and Mr. Binney went away feeling that the reward of good +behaviour had already come, in spite of the <i>New Court Chronicle</i>. +</p> + +<p> +But, alas! Mr. Binney's reputation proved harder matter to live down +than he had anticipated. The men whom he met on the river fought +rather shy of him, for to tell the truth, there was very little to +recommend the poor little gentleman as a companion for youth if he was +to be taken seriously as he now seemed to desire. Howden and Co. had +only put up with him because of his dinners, and because, at the time +he had consorted with them, he had apparently not objected to being +made the butt of their not over-refined pleasantries. He now led a +very dull and dejected life, but his work kept him employed, and the +prospects of his boat in the Lent races gave him something to look +forward to with keen expectation. The First Trinity first Lent boat +had fallen to the fourth place on the river, but this year it was by +far the best crew practising, with the possible exception of the head +boat. It was expected to make its first three bumps with comparative +ease, and to row an exciting race with Trinity Hall in the last night +of the races for the head place on the river. Whenever Mr. Binney felt +inclined to get down-hearted at the thought of his unpopularity he +would buoy himself up with the anticipation of the glory that would +accrue to him if his hopes were realised. +</p> + +<p> +Unfortunately the editor of the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> found his +journalistic ingenuity increasing with practice, and spent such pains +over "The Binney Correspondence," that that feature of his paper soon +became the talk of Cambridge. After the third number Mr. Binney wrote +him a letter of expostulation, which he published with appropriate +comment, but of which he took no further notice. That week's +instalment of the Correspondence contained an account from "Your +repentant son, Peter Binney," of how he had been asked to dine with the +Vice-Chancellor, had disgraced himself by drinking too much wine, and +had been escorted home by the two Esquire Bedells with their silver +pokers, while he raised the town with a spirited rendering of "Rule +Britannia." Mrs. Binney, the mother, expressed herself heart-broken at +the news, and announced her intention of coming up to Cambridge to +implore the Vice-Chancellor to overlook the offence, and give her +erring boy another chance. She also alluded to her grand-daughter +Lucy, who was supposed to be studying at Girton College. "She is a +good girl," wrote the old lady, "and would be ashamed to carry on in +the way you do, Peter, but the dear child tells me she wishes she had +been sent to Newnham College. She likes the students there so much +better." +</p> + +<p> +Poor little Mr. Binney went round to his son's rooms almost in tears. +He found Lucius still more angry than himself, for, although his +admiration of the Newnham girl was well known among his immediate +friends, and he did not take a mild degree of chaff on the subject at +all ill, the vulgar publicity now given to it goaded him to the verge +of desperation. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, it's you, father," he said. "I'm going round to that fellow Piper +to tell him if this business isn't stopped I'll knock his teeth down +his throat." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, Lucius," said Mr. Binney plaintively. "I wish I was big and +strong like you. I'd have done that long ago. But you're a good boy +to stick up for your poor father. I'm going to increase your allowance +by £10 for asking me to lunch to meet Mirrilees, and if you get these +disgraceful attacks stopped I'll add another £20. You'll get back to +the old figure if you're careful, and even beyond it." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks, father," said Lucius, "but I don't want paying for doing a +thing like that. I've got a little score of my own against Mr. Piper, +and I'm going to pay it off now." And Lucius took up his cap and left +the room. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap11"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XI +</h3> + +<h4> +"PUT HIM IN THE FOUNTAIN" +</h4> + +<p> +Mr. Binney had wished he was big and strong like his son. As a matter +of fact Lucius was quite a light weight, and although wiry and in good +condition, it was certain that he was quite incapable of fulfilling his +threat of knocking Piper's teeth down his throat, unless Piper allowed +him to do so without making any resistance, which was unlikely. Piper +was a great heavy lump of bone and muscle, over six feet high, and +quite as fit as Lucius, for the latter had been finally rejected for +the University boat, for this year at least, and had gone out of +training, while Piper was still playing football. These considerations +did occur to Lucius as he walked from his own rooms to those where +Piper carried on his editorial functions, but he was so angry that they +carried little weight with them. In the New Court he met Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"Come up here with me," he said. "I've got a little job on." +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy followed him up the staircase to Piper's rooms, talking volubly, +as was his wont; but Lucius gave him no answer. +</p> + +<p> +Piper was discovered sitting at his table talking to Howden, who stood +with his back to the mantel-piece. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius plunged into his business without any preface. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here, sir," he said, "I've come about this stuff you've been +printing about me and my father. I'll trouble you to stop it, if you +don't mind." +</p> + +<p> +Piper's face darkened. He was a bad-tempered man. He was also a +clever man, and having no reason to be alarmed at any possible violence +on Lucius's part, which he would rather have welcomed than otherwise, +he thought he might as well draw him into a battle of words and afford +his intellect some little amusement. So he choked down his temper and +said quietly: +</p> + +<p> +"You are Mr. Binney, junior, I believe. You are not mentioned from one +end of the paper to the other, except as having had the chuck from the +'Varsity boat, and I don't see you've any reason to complain of that." +</p> + +<p> +"That's a lie," said Lucius instantly. Piper started from his chair, +but sat down again and waited. "You know perfectly well," continued +Lucius hotly, "that that rot about Lucy and Girton is meant for me, and +even if it wasn't I object to your making fun of my father." +</p> + +<p> +This was what Piper wanted. "Is the other Binney your father?" he said +with a sneer. "I didn't know it. If I had a father like that I'd +drown him." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius made a dash forward, and Piper stood up with an evil smile on +his face. But Stubbs caught hold of his friend and pulled him back, +and Howden stepped forward. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, come now, Pips!" expostulated he, "don't overdo it, old man." +</p> + +<p> +But Piper took no notice. He suddenly lost all control over his temper. +</p> + +<p> +"What the devil do you mean by coming blustering here?" he shouted. +"Get out of my rooms this minute or I'll throw you out of the window. +Yes, you'd better keep him back, you putty-faced swab"—this to +Dizzy—"if he comes near me I'll put some marks on him that he won't +lose in a hurry." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius shook off Dizzy's encircling grasp. +</p> + +<p> +"Will you stop printing lies about me and my father?" he said. +</p> + +<p> +"I won't stop anything," rejoined Piper. +</p> + +<p> +"Then will you fight?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fight! By G—, yes. Take off your coat and try." +</p> + +<p> +Howden and Stubbs both tried to stop them, but they might as well have +tried to stop the tide rising. They were shaken off impatiently. +Piper pushed the table and sofa aside, and in less than three minutes +after Lucius had entered the room they were at it hammer and tongs. +</p> + +<p> +There was not much science displayed. The room was too small, for one +thing, and there was a good deal of damage done to furniture and +breakables before it was all over. If Lucius had kept cool he might +have made up in some measure for the great disparity in weight between +them, for he knew just a little more of the game than Piper; but both +of them were blind with rage, and it was attack on both sides, with +very little defence, as long as it lasted. +</p> + +<p> +It did not last long. Lucius fought as long as he could stand, but his +blows got weaker and weaker, while Piper got in again and again with as +much force as at first. At last he knocked Lucius clean through the +glass doors of a cupboard which held his stock of crockery, and he fell +heavily on to the floor, and lay there insensible, with the blood +pouring from his head. Piper had not had enough even to cool his +passion. "Get a towel and water from the bedroom," he said to Dizzy, +who was kneeling by the side of his friend. "And take him out of this +as soon as you can. I'm not going to stay in the same room with him." +And he put on his coat and went out of the room. +</p> + +<p> +Howden stayed behind and helped to restore Lucius to consciousness. +"It's rot his tackling a chap like Pips," he said; "he's not in the +same class with him, and he's a demon when he's roused. I wouldn't +care to take him on myself." +</p> + +<p> +"He's a d—d cad," said Dizzy, in deep concern, "and I don't care if he +hears me say so." +</p> + +<p> +This was the only conversation that passed between them till Lucius +came round. Then they both helped him across to his own rooms in +Whewell's Court, which they reached with some difficulty, as Lucius was +dazed, and as weak as a kitten. Here the drama changed from tragedy to +farce, for Mr. Binney was waiting for them, and as soon as he saw the +state to which Lucius had been reduced he made such lamentations that +neither Dizzy nor Howden could help laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, chuck it, Binney," said Howden. "He'll be all right when he gets +to bed." +</p> + +<p> +"Go out and get a doctor, Mr. Binney," said Dizzy. "He's cut his head +with some broken glass, and we can't stop the bleeding." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney dashed out instantly in a frenzy of terror, and Howden and +Dizzy helped Lucius off with his clothes and into bed, where he lay +silent with his face to the wall, while the blood slowly oozed out from +under the bandages on his head and soaked into his pillow. The two +stood looking at him irresolutely. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm all right now," said Lucius faintly, "you needn't wait." They +went into the sitting-room. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here, sir," said Dizzy. "You must stop this business. It's gone +quite far enough." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear fellow," said Howden, "I didn't have anything to do with it. +I told Piper he ought to stop it when Binney wrote to object, +because—well, because Binney ain't a bad old chap after all, and it's +rough on him. But he wouldn't, and it isn't likely he'll stop now, +after this." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if he won't stop it of his own accord, he'll have to be made +to," said Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know who's going to make him," said Howden. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I think we can manage that," said Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney came back with a doctor, who patched up Lucius's damaged +head and told him to keep in bed until he should come again on the next +day. Mr. Binney kept fussing about the room wringing his hands over +the trouble that he had caused, and bewailing the smallness of his +stature which debarred him from visiting summary justice upon Piper for +the way he had treated his son. He was a ridiculous little object in +his grief, and his behaviour was not soothing to the nerves of a sick +man. +</p> + +<p> +"Do get him away," whispered Lucius to Dizzy. "I want to go to sleep;" +and the latter, by the exercise of infinite tact, managed to remove Mr. +Binney from the premises. A short time afterwards, having seen that +Lucius was comfortably settled, he removed himself, and then set to +work to lay plans to circumvent Piper and cause the downfall of the +<i>New Court Chronicle</i>. First of all he went round to the rooms of an +influential member of the Third Trinity Boat Club, a man named Tait, +who was rowing "Seven" in the University boat. He found him at home, +and with him were Mirrilees, two other members of the University crew, +and our old acquaintance Blathgowrie. To them he confided his story, +which was received with interest and indignation, for Lucius was a +popular member of the boating set, between which and the clique +represented by Howden and Piper there happened to be a certain amount +of bad blood at that particular time. +</p> + +<p> +"It's all the fault of that confounded little bantam," said +Blathgowrie, when Dizzy's tale had come to an end. "It's jolly good of +Lucy to fight his battles for him after the way he's treated him. I'm +hanged if I would." +</p> + +<p> +"Those letters are the best thing in Piper's scurrilous rag," said +Tait. "It's a pity to stop them, but if Lucy objects—and I expect it +was more on his own account than his governor's—I think it's about +time the paper was suppressed. I've a good mind to take Mr. Piper on +myself." +</p> + +<p> +"You can't do that," said Mirrilees quickly. "You might manage to lick +him, but even that is doubtful, and he'd damage you so that you +wouldn't be able to row for a day or two. Besides, if you licked him +once a week from now till the end of the term he wouldn't stop the +paper. He's not that sort." +</p> + +<p> +"It's got to be stopped somehow," said Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"Who publishes it?" asked Blathgowrie. +</p> + +<p> +"Breedon," said Tait. +</p> + +<p> +"Very well, then. We'll tell him to leave off, and if he don't we'll +boycott him. We can get everybody to go somewhere else for their +<i>menus</i> and all those little jobs. He won't hesitate long between us +and Mr. Piper, I think." +</p> + +<p> +Blathgowrie busied himself to some purpose, and submitted to Messrs. +Breedon & Co. a considerable list of gentlemen who proposed to transfer +their valuable custom if another number of the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> +appeared with Messrs. Breedon's name on the cover. The firm caved in +at once and intimated to the editor that he must find another +publisher. Piper made himself very objectionable, but Messrs. Breedon +& Co. were firm, and absolutely refused to bring out another number for +him. Piper had now got his back up and swore to go on publishing his +paper if he brought out every number at a loss. He found a more +obscure stationer than Messrs. Breedon & Co. who was willing to oblige +him, and went on with his editorial functions, throwing far more vigour +and malice into the next instalment of the "Binney Correspondence" than +he had done before. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Lucius lay alone that afternoon in his comfortless college +bedroom. He was very miserable. He felt weak and ill, and his +thoughts took a melancholy turn. He had done no good by his single +combat with the redoubtable Piper; in fact, things would now probably +be worse than before. He had no energy to feel angry with his father, +but he saw the whole University pointing fingers of scorn at him, an +unpleasantness which might be expected to continue and increase as long +as he remained at Cambridge. The hope which he had entertained up to a +week ago of a place in the University boat no longer buoyed him up +against adversity. In his present state of depression he saw himself +missing everything that made Cambridge interesting to him, and heartily +wished himself away from the place altogether. His thoughts, nowadays, +seldom kept long away from the girl whom he had seen for the first time +last term, but there was not much comfort to be got out of thinking +about her. He had not been so fortunate this term as to have hit upon +a lecture which she attended, and no longer had the satisfaction of +sitting in the same room with her for an hour, twice a week. He had +discovered that she went to a lecture at St. John's College, and used +to hang about outside the gates on the chance of seeing her as she went +to and fro. But there are two ways between Newnham and St. John's, one +along Trinity Street and the King's Parade, the other past the backs of +the colleges, and after a time the uncomfortable conviction took hold +of Lucius that his divinity was taking a malicious delight in dodging +him. If he waited outside the big gate of St. John's, she went home by +the backs, and if he lay in wait on the Bridge of Sighs, she would go +through the town. And upon the rare occasions when he did meet her +face to face there was no sign that she was so much as aware of his +existence. Lying on his bed, with heavy heart and throbbing head, as +the light of the short winter afternoon slowly died, poor Lucius took +the gloomiest view of his chances of ever becoming better acquainted +with her. +</p> + +<p> +Just as he had reached the lowest possible depths of depression, +Mirrilees and Tait came in to see him, and to sympathise. They told +him of Blathgowrie's strategy. They had not discovered yet that Piper +had circumvented it, and arranged to produce his paper from another +address. +</p> + +<p> +"We're going to hoot Piper in hall to-night," said Tait, "and see if we +can't bring on a scrimmage afterwards. If we do, we'll put him in the +fountain. I expect he'll oblige us. He's a pugnacious beggar." +</p> + +<p> +When they had gone, he received an unexpected visit from his cousin, +John Jermyn, who was much surprised to find him in bed, and hardly knew +how to express himself with reference to current events. In a small +way, in his own college, John Jermyn had suffered some annoyance from +his relationship to Mr. Binney, and was not particularly proud of it. +His shyness, however, prevented him from alluding to his cousin's +reputation. If he had done so, he might have discovered that Lucius, +in spite of his loyalty, was not very well pleased with his father at +that particular time. +</p> + +<p> +"My mother is coming up next week for a few days," said Jermyn, "and I +came to ask you if you would lunch with us on Tuesday. There will only +be she and my sister from Newnham. You haven't met her yet." +</p> + +<p> +"But surely, your sister is at Girton, isn't she?" said Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"No, Newnham," said Jermyn. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius's heart suddenly lightened. Any connection with Newnham was +welcome to him, and opened up possibilities. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, I went out to Girton to call on her," said Lucius; "they said she +was out." +</p> + +<p> +"Rather lucky," said his cousin. "That's a Miss German with a G. +Well, then, you'll come on Tuesday, if you're well enough, at half-past +one." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I'll come," said Lucius. "Thanks very much." +</p> + +<p> +When his cousin had left him he found that his spirits had lightened +considerably. The visit of his friends had cheered him, for he had +thought that if he was to fight his father's battles for him he would +have to fight them alone, and it was pleasant to find that there were +others on his side. And the Newnham girl seemed to be nearer to him, +somehow, now he knew that she and his cousin were at the same college. +He began to build castles in the air. He knew that his cousin was in +her first year, and he thought that if his divinity had been in +Cambridge before last term, he must have noticed her; so the two were +of the same year, and probably friends. He might get to know her +through his cousin—though it was difficult to see how an introduction +could be brought about. At any rate he would be able to find out her +name, and that was something. He was rather sorry that he had refused +the invitation to the Norfolk Rectory at Christmas. He would make up +for it by cultivating his cousins now. He comforted himself with rosy +visions, and by-and-bye fell asleep. Mr. Binney came in after his +afternoon's work on the river was over, and went out again. Dizzy +crept in, looked at him, and crept away again on tiptoe. But still +Lucius slept on, and when he woke again about nine o'clock he was very +much better. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime the ill-feeling between the boating men and the +football players, fanned by Piper's treatment of Lucius, had burnt up +to a blaze. When Piper went into hall that night, a little late, there +was a chorus of groans and hisses as he passed the table where +Mirrilees and Tait sat. He stopped for an instant, and an ugly look +came over his face. The groans grew louder, and the dons turned round +and looked down the hall from their seats at the high tables. Then +Piper went to his place, the noise ceased and the dons, reassured, +turned to their dinner. But there were ominous whisperings and glances +at the table where Piper sat, and like signs at the table of the +boating men nearer the door. The latter finished their dinner early +and went out in a body. When they had got outside the door they waited +by the college screens. Men who belonged to neither faction dropping +out of hall one by one, looked with surprise at such an unexpected +gathering, and passed on. Some of them waited outside to see what +would happen. Before very long Piper came out, immediately followed by +Howden and the rest. He looked black when he saw the waiting crowd, +and then there was a curious pause. Bodily violence between +fellow-undergraduates is a rare thing unless arising spontaneously from +chance collisions of opposing factions. In this case there was plenty +of bad feeling, but no hot blood at present, and although both sides +were eager for a quarrel, nobody quite knew how to begin it. After a +moment's pause Piper went on towards the steps leading down to +Neville's Court. He looked a very ugly customer. Although Lucius had +not succeeded in doing him a fraction of the damage which he himself +had received, Piper had not got off quite unmarked. He had a black eye +and a swollen cheek bone. His temper was up, too, and he was probably +nearer the state of mind when a fight is a relief than any one there. +</p> + +<p> +"Ugly bruiser!" remarked Tait as he passed. +</p> + +<p> +Piper faced him instantly. "What's that, sir!" he asked angrily. +</p> + +<p> +"I said you were an ugly bruiser, sir." +</p> + +<p> +Piper aimed a savage blow at him before the words were well out of his +mouth. Tait had just time to parry it. There was no need for any +further introduction. Exactly where they were, with startled waiters +going to and fro from the kitchens to the hall, and the intermittent +stream of undergraduates passing through, the two parties fell upon one +another, and the noise of the combat rose above the clatter of plates +and the muffled swinging of the heavy doors, and reached the dons on +the daïs at the other end of the hall. "Put him in the fountain," +shouted Mirrilees, and the struggling mass surged slowly out of the +doorway and down the shallow flight of steps into the Great Court. +Blood was up now and there was no lack of sincerity in the blows that +were given and taken. Little groups of disinterested spectators looked +on at the strange spectacle of men of the same college, most of them +well known throughout the University for their prowess in different +branches of sport, fighting fiercely, and gradually drawing nearer to +the great stone fountain which rears its stately mass from one of the +grass plots. The boating men had a slight advantage in numbers, but +the footballers were, with some few exceptions, a heavier lot, and +progress was slow. Piper fought savagely and disabled one or two of +the men who were dragging him along, while his friends were mostly +engaged in a series of single combats round him. There is no knowing +how the battle would have ended. In spite of their slightly superior +force it is doubtful whether Mirrilees's and Tait's party could have +succeeded in inflicting the punishment on Piper which they intended. +But before they reached the fountain a little party of dons who had +been apprised of what was going on came running down the steps of the +hall towards the struggling and swaying mass. They were led by the +Senior Dean. "Stop this, gentlemen, stop this," he shouted, as he +reached them. A few of them stopped irresolutely. The rest paid no +attention to the order. It is doubtful if they heard it. The Senior +Dean, who was a man of resolution, threw himself among them, followed +by one or two of his companions. At first there was no result, except +that dons and undergraduates were mixed up together in one general +<i>mêlée</i>. But gradually the voice and energetic action of authority +began to tell. First one left off fighting and then another, until +Piper and the men who had got hold of him were the only ones still +left. Deprived of the assistance of his backers, Piper was carried +with a little run right up to the steps of the fountain, but there the +Dean and a few stalwart Fellows who were helping him managed to stop +them by sheer force, and the fight ceased, leaving a dishevelled +panting crowd of combatants facing one another, with the stern figure +of judicial vengeance master of the field. Names were taken, orders +given, and the crowd slowly dispersed. The boating men held the +conviction that if they had been left alone they would have done what +they meant to do and avenged the defeat Piper had administered to +Lucius. At any rate they had given him a lesson which he wouldn't +forget in a hurry. The football men made a great deal of the fact that +they had been overpowered by superior numbers. <i>They</i> were also +greatly cheered by the conviction that they had given their opponents +something that they wouldn't forget in a hurry. +</p> + +<p> +The sequel to the fracas was rather curious. It resulted in an entire +healing up of the feud that had arisen, no one quite knew how, for it +dated from before the issue of the <i>New Court Chronicle</i>. These +quarrels between two sets of men are rare in the University, but they +sometimes arise and continue for a year or so and then die away. This +one would have disappeared slowly in due course, because no two sets of +men can be said to be absolutely clear and distinct one from another, +but are merged at some points by friendships between their respective +members. But, the matter having been brought to a head by the quarrel +between Lucius and Piper, and the bad blood let off, the ill-feeling +disappeared as if by magic, and men who had fought with one another on +that night by the fountain might have been seen in one another's rooms +later on in the term the best of friends. +</p> + +<p> +There was one exception to the general amicability. Piper, who was an +evil-tempered fellow, emerged from the tussle in a black rage, and +continued in it for much longer than a normally constituted man would +have found such a state of mind possible. +</p> + +<p> +The Senior Dean being wise in his generation, and having a fairly +shrewd idea as to how the unseemly fracas had arisen, and what was +likely to be its result, dealt lightly with the offenders. There were +a good many official interviews and a few "gates," and then the matter +was allowed to drop. None of the combatants actually told him in so +many words what had been the immediate origin of the fray, but Mr. +Binney having discovered the day after that Piper was more determined +than ever to continue the publication of his paper, had paid an early +visit to the Dean and asked him to suppress it officially. He had +brought the term's numbers already issued with him, and the Dean +gravely perused the "Binney Correspondence" then and there, while the +object of it sat uneasily before him watching his face. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't defend this, Mr. Binney," said the Dean, laying down the +papers on his table when he had finished them. "A great deal of it is +very offensive. But, you know, you've got yourself to thank for most +of it. +</p> + +<p> +"I know—I know," said poor little Mr. Binney, whose cock-sureness in +his treatment of Deans and Tutors had been considerably reduced of +late. "A good deal of it might fairly have been said of me last term. +But it isn't true of me now. With the exception of a dinner in my +rooms on the second night of the term, after which occurred some +insubordination for which I was not responsible, nothing of the sort +mentioned here has happened. I have been one of the quietest men in +the college. It is my fixed intention to bring an action for libel +against this man Piper," he continued, with a slight return to his +former manner, "if this goes on, and if you don't see your way of +stopping it, sir. It is intolerable." +</p> + +<p> +"You will not find it necessary to do that, Mr. Binney," said the Dean. +"I will see that it is stopped. You had better leave these papers with +me." +</p> + +<p> +It did not add to Piper's amiability when it came to his turn to be +interviewed, to be told by the Dean that he had perused several numbers +of the <i>New Court Chronicle</i>, and that it was about time that +publication came to an end. He allowed Piper to argue the point, but +when he found that they were no nearer an agreement on it than before, +he told him peremptorily that he had made up his mind that the paper +should be stopped, and stopped it must be. He pointed out several +offensive articles aimed at the authorities of the University and +Colleges, and alluded very little to the "Binney Correspondence," and +finally found it necessary to tell Mr. Piper that he might choose +between publishing another number of the paper and remaining at +Cambridge. +</p> + +<p> +So the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> came to an end, and neither Mr. Binney nor +Lucius suffered any further annoyances from the printed expression of +Piper's malice. The effects of the hitherto published instalments of +the "Binney Correspondence," however, did not end there as far as Mr. +Binney was concerned, as will afterwards, appear. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap12"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XII +</h3> + +<h4> +LUCIUS MAKES ONE DISCOVERY AND MRS. TOLLER ANOTHER +</h4> + +<p> +Lucius was out and about again, not much the worse for his late +encounter, by the time Tuesday came round, when he was to lunch with +his cousin. He was in fairly good spirits as he walked down the King's +Parade and Silver Street, towards the ancient pile of Queens' College. +He and his father were better friends than they had been any time since +Mr. Binney had come into residence at Cambridge. Mr. Binney now +comported himself with the dignity that befitted his years, and no +longer made his son's life a burden to him by those continued +indiscretions which had brought shame and confusion of face to Lucius +in the past. He had restored his full allowance, and Lucius was better +off in pocket than he had been since Mr. Binney had come up. And then +the Newnham girl, to whom somehow he seemed to be getting nearer, now +that he had discovered that she and his cousin were fellow-students, +had distinctly given him a glance of recognition when he had seen her +in King's Chapel on the previous Sunday. It was not much to pride +himself on, certainly, but such as it was he had hugged the thought of +it ever since. She had been sitting with some other girls in the front +row of seats as Lucius walked up the chapel, and he had taken +particular notice of those other girls when he had manoeuvred himself +into a seat opposite her, in case one of them should turn out to be his +cousin. +</p> + +<p> +John Jermyn kept in a charming set of oak-panelled rooms over-looking +the river. +</p> + +<p> +There was an elderly lady sitting in the window seat as Lucius entered, +who rose to greet him. She was tall and graceful, with a sweet face +and grey hair. +</p> + +<p> +"You are very like your dear mother," she said, her eyes growing a +little moist as she looked at him. "We used to be great friends in +days gone by, but that is twenty years ago now." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius sat and talked to her in the window seat, while John Jermyn +wandered about the room with his hands in his pockets casting impatient +glances at the clock on the mantelpiece and the lunch on the table. +"Betty is late," he said. "I told her half-past one, and it is getting +on for a quarter to two." +</p> + +<p> +"We had better not wait any longer," said Mrs. Jermyn, rising. But +just then light steps were heard on the staircase, the door opened, and +disclosed to Lucius's astonished gaze the form and features of the +Newnham girl. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Betty Jermyn came forward, rosy and a little out of breath, with +murmured apologies, kissed her mother and her brother, and then waited +with a deepening blush and a mischievous light in her eyes, to be +introduced to Lucius, for whom the low dark room seemed suddenly to +have become filled with brilliant sunshine. +</p> + +<p> +"This is jour cousin Lucius, Betty," said Mrs. Jermyn, and the two +shook hands, but found no words with which to address one another. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of luncheon it came out in the most natural way that +Betty and Lucius had attended the same lecture in Trinity College all +last term, and remembered one another perfectly. +</p> + +<p> +"But you must have known who I was," said Lucius, a sudden light +breaking in on him, as he remembered those little glances of amusement +which had so thrilled his soul last term. "Gandey always used to read +out our names after the lecture." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I knew who you were," said Betty, with a little laugh. "And I +wondered how long it would be before you knew who <i>I</i> was." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius felt that when he was alone again he would be very angry with +himself for not having cultivated the society of his cousin John more +assiduously, and also for having refused Mrs. Jermyn's invitation to +stay with them in the Christmas vacation, but at present he was so +happy that there was no room for regrets. +</p> + +<p> +It was quite apparent to the maternal eyes of Mrs. Jermyn before lunch +was half over that this nice boy with his mother's eyes was head over +ears in love with her pretty little daughter, whom she still looked +upon as a child, in spite of the dignity conferred upon her by a +scholarship at Newnham. Her son, of course, saw nothing of the sort, +but he was pleased to find that his cousin, who was something of a hero +in his eyes, seemed to have taken a fancy to his sister, whom he found +it constantly necessary to keep in her place. He was afraid that Betty +would never learn to show reverence where reverence was due, but it was +a relief to find that Lucius apparently did not take her little +audacities amiss, and indeed seemed to be even amused by them. What +Mrs. Jermyn thought, it would not become us to disclose, but she +accepted Lucius's invitation for the whole party to lunch with him on +the next day, and her cordiality towards him had suffered no diminution +when they parted. +</p> + +<p> +It was curious that Mr. Binney's name was not once mentioned between +them. John Jermyn had given his mother a rather highly coloured +account of our hero's peccadillos, and Betty had added her little +comments, for the fame of Mr. Binney's exploits had penetrated even the +walls of Newnham College. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, mother," she had said, "you really can't have anything to do with +cousin Peter. He is a horrid little man and leads Lucius such a life, +so everybody says. And Lucius is so popular with all the men. It is a +great shame." +</p> + +<p> +"I never cared for Mr. Binney very much," said Mrs. Jermyn, "but I +should like you to ask Lucius to meet us, John. I should like to see +dear Lucy's boy, although I saw very little of her after her marriage." +</p> + +<p> +So Lucius had come, been seen and had conquered, and went away again +full of delighted wonder at the surprising thing that had happened. +His first desire was to find the sympathetic Dizzy and impart to him +the astounding news. He tracked him down at the racquet courts and +brought him away when he had finished his game. +</p> + +<p> +"I say, old man," he said in as calm a tone as he could muster, "I've +found out the name of that girl at last. What do you think it is?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I don't know," said Dizzy, who had lost his match, and was as +nearly inclined to pessimism as was consistent with his equable nature. +"Henrietta, I should think, or Lulu, or Kate. Parents haven't any +taste nowadays. Look at mine christening me Benjamin. Stubbs is bad +enough, but Benjamin! 'Pon my word I sometimes feel inclined to get it +changed by Act of Parliament." +</p> + +<p> +"Her name is Elizabeth J——" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it would be," interrupted Dizzy. "Elizabeth Jones. Just what I +said. Well, what are you going to do about it?" +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't say Elizabeth Jones," said Lucius. "Elizabeth is a very +pretty name, especially when it's shortened to Betty. Her surname +isn't Jones, it's Jermyn." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, is it? Well, I'm not so sure that—<i>what</i>! JERMYN!! You don't +mean to say——?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I do," said Lucius triumphantly. "That very girl is my cousin at +Newnham, and no other." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I'm blowed!" exclaimed Dizzy. "But there, Lucy, I always told +you if you'd only take the trouble to hunt your cousin down, or rather +up, she'd turn out to be a topper. And I was right. When are you +going to have her to tea?" +</p> + +<p> +"She's coming to lunch to-morrow," said Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm engaged to-morrow, I'm afraid," said Dizzy. "Going to lunch with +Blathgowrie. I dare say I could get off it, though." +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't try," said Lucius; "but I'll get her to tea some day soon, +before her mother goes away, and then you can come. Oh, my goodness! +What a chance for a fellow! to be head over ears in love with a girl, +and think he's never going to get to know her, and then for her to turn +out to be his own cousin after all." +</p> + +<p> +"Did she say anything about me?" inquired Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"About you? No. Why should she?" +</p> + +<p> +"Why shouldn't she, you mean. I'm a very striking looking feller. She +must have noticed me in the lecture-room last term." +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't trouble yourself that she'll waste many thoughts on <i>you</i>." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, all right, old man. Keep your wool on. Now, don't forget to ask +me to tea one of these days. I won't try and cut you out; you can rely +on me." +</p> + +<p> +The remainder of that week passed like a happy dream to Lucius. He +managed to spend some time every day with his cousins, found his way +right inside Mrs. Jermyn's heart, and seemed to make very good headway +up to a certain point with Betty. That is to say, they became +excellent friends, and were on perfectly familiar terms, but at the end +of the week he was no nearer knowing whether she reciprocated his +admiration than at the beginning, for beyond a certain point he was +never allowed to go. When Saturday came, Mrs. Jermyn went away and +left Lucius desolated. But she had already asked him to stay with them +in Norfolk during the Easter vacation, and he was left in by no means +such a state of hopeless longing as before, for he managed to meet his +cousin pretty often during the rest of the term, and although he was +never allowed to enjoy the pleasure of her company for very long, she +seldom met him without a few words of conversation passing between +them, which gave Lucius something to live for now that the University +boat had gone to Putney and left him behind in Cambridge. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Jermyn had not been able to avoid Mr. Binney altogether during her +stay at Cambridge. She thought that she ought to see something of him +now that his son seemed likely to become an intimate friend in her +family. Accordingly Mr. Binney was notified of her arrival, and called +on her at the "Bull" where she was staying. Mr. Binney had not yet +recovered from the events narrated in the last two chapters, and was in +a depressed and dull state of mind. He quite forgot to patronize Mrs. +Jermyn on the fact of her son being a scholar of Queens' College, while +he was a pensioner of Trinity, as he certainly would have done a few +months before. Mrs. Jermyn talked chiefly about his wife, and Mr. +Binney, who had been a widower for fifteen years, and had set up the +image of Mrs. Higginbotham in the niche left vacant by the death of +Lucius's mother, followed her lead with some uneasiness of mind. There +was no warmth of feeling between them, and each was mutually relieved +when Mr. Binney rose to take his leave. He apologised for not asking +his cousins to lunch, but explained that he had to be down on the river +early every afternoon, and Mrs. Jermyn was not sorry that the +invitation was not given. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney, of course, still corresponded regularly with Mrs. +Higginbotham. He had refrained from sending her the <i>New Court +Chronicle</i>, or, indeed, from mentioning that feature of it which most +nearly concerned him, for some slight sense of dignity, which he had +appeared to have relinquished during the Michaelmas term, had returned +to him, and he was not anxious to have it known that he was treated +with ridicule. He wrote about his work and about the prospects of the +First Trinity first Lent boat, and if his letter did betoken a +depression of spirits, the tender Mrs. Higginbotham put this down to +his separation from her and threw a wealth of affection and sympathy +into her replies, which greatly consoled Mr. Binney during his trying +time. She also expressed herself delighted with the improvement in +conduct displayed by her undergraduate lover, for, although Mrs. +Higginbotham liked to read stories of youthful daring and devilry, when +theory resolved itself into practice her mind recoiled affrighted. Mr. +Binney was fond of imagery, and he often assured Mrs. Higginbotham at +this time that her love and confidence in him was the rock to which he +clung while the waves of adversity buffeted him; it was also an anchor, +and a port, and a city of refuge; a ray of sunshine, a star, a beacon, +a lantern; a refreshing fountain, an oasis in the desert, a cup of cold +water; a buckler, and a good many other things. Mrs. Higginbotham made +no attempt to discover what the waves of adversity were that were +reported to be buffeting Mr. Binney. She liked his poetical method of +expressing himself; she said it made her feel warm all over, and there +she let the matter rest. +</p> + +<p> +But there was a serpent in this garden of mutual esteem. If Mrs. +Higginbotham did not read the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> and was ignorant of +the dreadful things that were being said about her Peter, there was +someone else who was fully acquainted with them. +</p> + +<p> +The day after Mr. Binney's dinner-party in Russell Square, Mrs. Toller +called upon Mrs. Higginbotham, as she had announced her intention of +doing. She waited for ten minutes alone in the drawing-room before +Mrs. Higginbotham made her appearance. The first three or four she +spent in refreshing her memory of the contents of the room. Then, +growing bolder, she inspected the contents of Mrs. Higginbotham's +Davenport writing-table, without, however, discovering anything that +interested her. Thinking she heard a step on the stair she seated +herself quickly beside the fire and snatched up a paper from the little +table by her side. Nobody came, and Mrs. Toller then turning over the +little pile of periodicals, lighted upon the creased copy of the <i>New +Court Chronicle</i> which Mr. Binney had posted from Cambridge. +</p> + +<p> +"Well! upon my word!" exclaimed Mrs. Toller to herself when she had +perused the paragraph in "Madge's Letter" already referred to. She +then turned to the title page of the paper and made a note of the +publisher's address on the little ivory tablet she carried in her +purse. When she had done that she heard Mrs. Higginbotham approaching, +so, hastily burying the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> under the pile and taking +up <i>The Christian World</i> instead, she affected to be so deeply +interested in its varied contents as to be unaware of Mrs. +Higginbotham's approach until that good lady had closed the door behind +her and begun to make apologies for her delay, which had arisen through +the arrival of a dressmaker to "try on." +</p> + +<p> +When Cambridge University had once more got into the swing of term +time, there appeared every Monday morning among Mrs. Toller's +correspondence a wrapper enclosing a paper directed from that ancient +seat of learning. Mrs. Toller always secreted this and opened it after +breakfast when the Doctor had retired to his study, for her +subscription to the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> cost her sixpence halfpenny a +week, which was more than the good Doctor paid for having the <i>Daily +Chronicle</i> served up hot with his breakfast every morning. University +journalism is not apt to afford great entertainment to people outside +the University where it is practised, but Mrs. Toller, although a woman +of economical habits, counted the information which she derived from +the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> cheap at the price which she paid for her +subscription, and looked forward keenly to the budget of news which +arrived for her every Monday morning. +</p> + +<p> +It must not be supposed that Mrs. Toller intended to keep her +information from her excellent husband; she was far too good a wife for +that. What she meant to do was to keep the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> to +herself until the end of the term, in order that Mr. Binney's infamies +might heap themselves up until she had a good budget of scandal to lay +before the Doctor. The game went merrily on for four or five weeks and +there was matter of offence against Mr. Binney enough to have brought +down upon him the wrath of the whole congregation of which he was so +distinguished a member. But Mrs. Toller's appetite, whetted by the +disclosure she had already surprised, thirsted for more. More she +would have had, for Mr. Piper had got his hand thoroughly in, but, as +we know, the <i>New Court Chronicle</i> had come to an untimely end, and +great was Mrs. Toller's disappointment when she received, one Monday +morning, instead of the journal she had so looked forward to during the +whole of the Sunday's religious exercises, a letter from the publisher +informing her that the publication had ceased, and that he begged to +return to her the remainder of the term's subscription. However, there +was quite enough upon which to act. +</p> + +<p> +The Doctor retired to his study as usual after breakfast. Mrs. Toller +got her daughter out of the way, produced the numbers she had already +received, and refreshed her memory of the whole of the "Binney +Correspondence." Then she sought her husband, who was taking a +well-earned rest after his Sabbath labours over a novel, which he +hastily secreted upon the entrance of his wife. +</p> + +<p> +"What's that you're reading, Samuel?" said Mrs. Toller. "I shouldn't +waste my time over that trash if I were you. I've got an important +matter to talk to you about." +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Toller breathed a sigh of resignation. He knew those important +matters. If they were not complaints of the behaviour of various +members of his congregation, they were generally household matters +which Mrs. Toller could very well have settled for herself. +</p> + +<p> +"You know how deep an interest I take in the welfare of the church," +began Mrs. Toller, seating herself in the easy chair by the side of the +fire. +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Toller knew only too well. "Yes, my dear, certainly," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"I should be very sorry," pursued Mrs. Toller, "if any scandal occurred +through the behaviour of one of our most prominent members, especially +when he happens to be a deacon." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, my dear," interrupted Dr. Toller hastily, "but I think that is +hardly likely to happen. All our deacons are men of irreproachable +character." +</p> + +<p> +"I am not so sure about that," said Mrs. Toller. "There is one of them +who seems to be rapidly treading the broad road, and if he is not very +sharply pulled up, I tremble to think of the catastrophe that may +occur." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, nonsense, my dear," said Dr. Toller. "You must surely be +exaggerating. There is an occasional tendency towards undue +interference on the part of our officers, who are some of them men of +more money than brains, although I wouldn't for the world have it known +that I said so. But I have no reason to dread anything worse than +that. You have got hold of some trivial matter and are magnifying it +in your mind—quite unintentionally, I am sure," he added hastily, +observing the ominous stiffening of Mrs. Toller's upper lip, "and with +the best of intentions, I am sure." +</p> + +<p> +"I am not aware," said Mrs. Toller, drawing herself up, "that +drunkenness is a trivial matter, Samuel, or revelry. If it is so, I +have misread the meaning of Scripture, and I should be glad to be +corrected." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course, my dear," said Dr. Toller, "such things are very dreadful, +but you have surely no reason to charge one of our deacons with +such—er—crimes." +</p> + +<p> +"Read the passages I have marked with blue pencil in these papers," +said Mrs. Toller, rising and handing the doctor her little bundle of +ephemeral journalism. "And then say if you can justly accuse me of +exaggeration, which I beg to say is not a habit of mine. I will leave +you for a quarter of an hour and then return." +</p> + +<p> +When Mrs. Toller did return she found the Doctor chuckling over some of +the humorous sallies of Mr. Piper's young lions. +</p> + +<p> +"Samuel!" she exclaimed, "is that the fashion in which you treat a +serious matter like this? Such ill-timed levity is surely out of +place." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so, my dear, quite so," said her husband, his face instantly +becoming serious. "I was not laughing at the news about Mr. Binney, +which I finished perusing some time ago. Some of these young men are +very clever. But really, with regard to Mr. Binney, I fully share your +feeling, my dear. Mr. Binney has always been rather erratic, curiously +so for a man of his years and position, but I could never have believed +that this sort of thing would happen. I—I—hardly know what to say +about it. But how did you get hold of these papers?" +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind that," said Mrs. Toller firmly. "We must act, and act +promptly so as to save scandal." +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Toller disliked acting at all on Monday morning, but he saw that +his wife was not to be trifled with, and said, "Certainly. Yes. I +quite agree with you. What shall I do?" +</p> + +<p> +"You must go up to Cambridge instantly, and remonstrate with the +misguided man." +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Toller looked blank. "Do you think that is necessary?" he asked. +"I should have thought a letter would have answered the purpose." +</p> + +<p> +"Not at all," said Mrs. Toller. "Mr. Binney is in that state of mind +in which he would take no notice of a letter. Severe expostulation and +ghostly advice are what he wants. He must be checked in his profligate +career at all costs, or worse may come of it. I should go with you, +but I have my mothers' meeting this afternoon, and I am not one to +neglect my duty." +</p> + +<p> +"But, surely, my dear," exclaimed the Doctor, "you would not wish me to +go to Cambridge to-day?" +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly I should," replied Mrs. Toller. "Why procrastinate? And +yet, I don't know. To-morrow perhaps I could accompany you. Perhaps +there is no necessity." +</p> + +<p> +"If it has to be done," said Dr. Toller, "perhaps it had better be done +to-day. It is not a pleasant business, but I agree with you that the +gravity of the occasion demands immediate action, and I shall not +shrink from taking it. I am really astounded at the disclosures made +in these papers. If the extraordinary course Mr. Binney appears to +have taken were to come to the ears of the church committee, I don't +know what would happen. I will go to Cambridge after the ladies' Bible +class this afternoon, and I think I will stay the night, my dear. I +should like to have a look round the colleges, that is if you have no +objection." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, you can do that," said Mrs. Toller, "if you like. And you might +call on Lucius and see how he is behaving himself, and on young +Bromley, at Emmanuel College. And mind, Samuel, I shall expect a full +account from you when you return home." +</p> + +<p> +So Dr. Toller packed his bag and traveled up to Cambridge by the five +o'clock train. He drove first of all to Corpus, where he had a friend +among the Fellows. He was persuaded to dine in Hall before he set out +on his visit to Mr. Binney, and enjoyed himself exceedingly at the High +Table, and in the Combination room afterwards. He did not disclose his +object in coming up to Cambridge, but heard quite enough about the +extraordinary career of Mr. Binney, who enjoyed considerable notoriety +at the University, to persuade him that his visit of expostulation was +really needed. About nine o'clock he told his host that he wished to +call on an undergraduate, and putting on his clerical cloak and hat, he +went round to Trinity College, where he was directed by the porter to +Mr. Binney's rooms in Jesus Lane. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap13"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XIII +</h3> + +<h4> +MR. BINNEY GETS INTO TROUBLE +</h4> + +<p> +Since the dinner at the beginning of the term Mr. Binney had done +nothing further to bring him under the displeasure of the authorities. +Howden, in return for the pecuniary assistance he had received, kept +his noisy friends away from him almost entirely, and so managed it that +none of them considered himself ill-used by the cessation of Mr. +Binney's former hospitalities. He worked very hard, and if the absence +of his previous amusements did make life rather dull to him, the +excitement of the coming Lent races and the probability that the crew +he was steering would give a good account of themselves buoyed him up. +Everything went well, the men were trained to a nicety, and most of +them were confident that their boat would go head of the river. On the +morning of the races Mr. Binney was too nervous to work. He attended +one lecture, but found himself quite incapable of discovering any +meaning in the lecturer's remarks. After that he relinquished the +attempt to turn his mind to anything except boat-racing, and wandered +about the town, with his hands in his pockets, looking the picture of +misery. By-and-bye it occurred to him to pay a visit to his son and to +try and extract some consolation from that experienced oarsman. He +found Lucius engaged over a game of piquet with the ever-cheerful +Dizzy. Lucius looked rather ashamed of himself when his father +entered, but Dizzy was not at all put out. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, Mr. Binney," he exclaimed, "very pleased to see you. We are just +unbending our great minds a little. All work and no play, you know, +won't do at all." +</p> + +<p> +But reprehensible as card playing at twelve o'clock in the morning +undoubtedly is, Mr. Binney made no comment upon his son's occupation. +</p> + +<p> +"I am terribly nervous, Lucius," he said. "I wish this afternoon was +well over." +</p> + +<p> +"What! Got the needle!" exclaimed Dizzy, while Lucius cleared away the +cards. "Well, I'm not surprised at it. My old governor once had to +make a political speech. He don't know anything about politics, but +the big man had disappointed 'em, and they couldn't get anybody bigger +at a day's notice. I assure you he got so nervous that he lost the use +of his limbs and had to be massaged for an hour before he went off to +the meeting, and when he got there he made such a hash of it that +nobody's ever asked him to talk since, although he frequently obliges +when he <i>isn't</i> asked." +</p> + +<p> +"Political speaking is nothing to this," said Mr. Binney. "I know all +about that. When I put up for the County Council two years ago, I had +to make a speech every night of my life for a fortnight, and I enjoyed +it, although I didn't get in; but I feel so nervous now that I really +don't know what to do." +</p> + +<p> +"You will be all right, father," said Lucius, "when you find yourself +sitting in the boat with the rudder lines in your hand. Make a good +lunch and forget all about it till it's time to go down to the river. +I should take a glass of brandy if I were you. It'll pull you +together, and can't do you any harm as you're not rowing." +</p> + +<p> +"Brandy, Lucy!" echoed Dizzy, "the very worst thing you could possibly +take. Don't you remember Dale who coxed the Eight at Eton. When he +was in the lower boats he got the needle to such an extent he cried all +the morning. Some fellow gave him half a glass of brandy. It made him +as merry as a cricket. He said he didn't care for anybody, but he +forgot which was his left, and steered 'em into the bank before they +had rowed twenty strokes." +</p> + +<p> +"I am not likely to do that, Stubbs," said Mr. Binney, slightly +offended. "I'm not a child. I'm a man with a head on my shoulders, as +Mirrilees has often told me, but all the same I wish it were all over." +</p> + +<p> +Just then Mirrilees himself came into the room and looked a little +disturbed at finding Mr. Binney there. It was quite easy to treat him +as a freshman of no importance when he was by himself, but in the +presence of his son Mirrilees found the position awkward. +</p> + +<p> +"You're bound to catch Pembroke to-night, I think," he said shyly, "and +I should certainly think you will go head on Saturday if everything +goes well." +</p> + +<p> +"I feel so nervous, you know, Mirrilees," said poor little Mr. Binney. +"It's all very well for you young fellows who are used to it, but it's +all new to me, and it's no use pretending I feel at my ease." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, for heaven's sake don't lose your head," said Mirrilees anxiously, +"or Third will bump you to a certainty. They're not so good as you +are, but they always go off with a rush, and may hustle you a bit at +first. If they don't catch you before Grassy you'll keep away all +right, and ought to run into Pembroke at Ditton Corner." +</p> + +<p> +"Third's pretty good," said Lucius. "They're not to be sneezed at. We +generally row faster than we are expected to." +</p> + +<p> +Then followed a long discussion between Lucius and Mirrilees upon the +respective merits of the two boats, which was not calculated to allay +Mr. Binney's nervousness, so he took his leave, and wandered about +again until lunch time, more disconsolate than ever. A hundred times +he wished he had never joined a boat club and even that he had never +come up to Cambridge. +</p> + +<p> +He passed a very trying few hours until it was time to go down to the +boat-house. During the long row down to the starting-point he +discovered that he had not entirely forgotten all that he had learnt +about the art of steering and felt a little better. But when the crew +got out of the boat and waited about in the drizzling rain for the +first gun his fears returned and he was unable to take any part in the +mild horse-play with which the rest of the crew beguiled the interval. +The bustle of getting into the boat again and seeing that everything +was right with stretchers, rowlocks, and steering-gear, revived him a +little, but during that awful minute before the last gun, when the boat +was shoved out and the men sat forward with every nerve on edge, while +the coach stood on the bank, watch in hand, telling off the relentless +seconds, Mr. Binney's face of gloom and despair was a picture to +behold. He was convinced that he was going to drop the chain so that +it would foul the rudder lines, or not drop it at all, or pull the +wrong string, or perform one of those mistakes to which the best of +coxswains are liable at these terrible moments. +</p> + +<p> +But the gun went off at last, and before Mr. Binney had time to realise +that they were fairly off, the boat was swinging down the river and he +himself was steering as straight as an arrow towards the vivid blue of +the Pembroke cox's blazer, feeling as capable and clear-headed as he +had ever done in his life. +</p> + +<p> +At first it seemed almost impossible to believe that they would ever +make up the distance which lay between them and the boat which was +moving along so steadily in front of them. But they had not rowed +twenty strokes before Mr. Binney realised that they were slowly +creeping up. +</p> + +<p> +A wild exultation took hold of him. "We're gaining!" he cried. +</p> + +<p> +Stroke's face was immovable, but he quickened up slightly. Another +thirty strokes and there was only a length between the two boats. Then +Pembroke spurted and began to draw away. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney's face fell. "We're losing ground!" he said, but Stroke +made no answer. His eyes were fixed upon something past Mr. Binney's +head, and our hero suddenly woke up to the fact that the cries of: +"Third! Third!" which came from the bank behind him, were now much +nearer and almost as loud as those of "First! First!" from their own +supporters alongside. +</p> + +<p> +A panic seized him, and he quickly turned his head and saw the nose of +the Third Trinity boat within six feet of his own. As he did so, he +unconsciously pulled one of his strings and the pursuing boat shot up +to within two feet. +</p> + +<p> +"Steady, there, steady!" growled Stroke, with an awful frown. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney pulled himself together and set his teeth, determined to +think of nothing but the Pembroke boat, which had now increased its +lead to a length and a half. +</p> + +<p> +"How far are they ahead?" asked Stroke, in a low voice. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney told him. Stroke quickened up and Mr. Binney had the +delight of feeling the boat shoot away under him, while a tremendous +roar from the men on the bank told him that Third Trinity was being +left behind and that all danger of being bumped by them was over for +the present. +</p> + +<p> +Up and up went the boat; the length and a half was lessened to a +length, then to half a length, then to a few feet. The Pembroke stroke +quickened, and drew away for a few seconds, but the spurt soon died +down. First Trinity went on gaining. The Pembroke cox began to wash +them off with his rudder. +</p> + +<p> +They had now reached the Red Grind, and Ditton Corner was close ahead. +Mr. Binney bided his time and crept in a trifle closer to the bank. +The nose of his boat began to dance up alongside the stern of the one +in front. Then the Pembroke cox made a mistake and steered into the +river. "We've got them," yelled Mr. Binney. +</p> + +<p> +Stroke made a mighty effort, which was answered by Pembroke, too late, +for the Trinity boat was shaving the corner, while they were right out +in the river. Mr. Binney held his course until the nose of his boat +was level with No. 5's rigger. Then he pulled his left string sharply +and ran into them just behind their coxswain's seat. +</p> + +<p> +"Well steered," said Stroke quietly, as he rested on his oar. +"Couldn't have been done better." And Mr. Binney tasted the joys of +paradise. +</p> + +<p> +The next day Mr. Binney's nervousness had vanished entirely. He +thirsted to be again in the fray, and looked forward keenly to +repeating the triumph of the previous afternoon. Needless to say he +wrote a long, exultant letter to Mrs. Higginbotham, recounting his +success and the honour it had brought him. Lucius and Dizzy came round +in the morning to congratulate him and to wish him luck in the coming +race. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course I wish Third had bumped them," said Lucius, as they walked +down Jesus Lane together, "but still the governor would have been so +sorry for himself that it's just as well they didn't." +</p> + +<p> +"You would have had your screw docked, Lucy, if Third had caught them," +said Dizzy, "so you may consider yourself jolly lucky they kept away." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, that's all over now," said Lucius. "The Governor behaves much +more respectably than he did last term. If that business had gone on I +really don't think I could have stopped up here." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney received their congratulations with equanimity. He had +jumped from the depths of self-distrust to the height of complaisance, +and now felt that if he had gone to Putney with the University crew the +victory of Cambridge over Oxford would have been assured. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, it's as simple as anything," he said, in answer to their +congratulations. "I can't think what ever can have made me feel so +nervous yesterday." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you be too cocksure about it, Mr. Binney," said Dizzy. "I knew +a fellow once who rode in a steeple-chase. He'd got by far the best +nag, and the odds were four to one on him. But he was so certain of +winning that he forgot he was riding in a race at all, and got off to +pick a flower after he had jumped the first hurdle. By the time he +remembered where he was and got on again, the other fellows had reached +the winning post. The bookies nearly murdered him." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney was not in a frame of mind to take warning by this awful +example of forgetfulness. He was so talkative in the changing room +that he was severely snubbed by the Captain of the boat. Jesus, the +boat in front of them this evening, ought to have presented no +difficulties and would certainly have been caught by Pembroke in the +long reach the night before if First Trinity had not made their bump at +Ditton. Mr. Binney steered very badly at Grassy and lost a lot of +ground. His steering round Ditton Corner was a little better, but +nothing like so good as on the previous evening, and again Jesus got +away. First Trinity made their bump at the railway bridge, but the men +had had a hard race instead of a very easy one, and some unpleasant +things were said to our hero when the race was at last over. +</p> + +<p> +The next day Mr. Binney had learned a lesson, steered well, and caught +Lady Margaret at Ditton much in the same way as Pembroke had been +bumped on the first night. +</p> + +<p> +First Trinity were now in the second place on the river, and had their +work cut out for them to bump Trinity Hall on the last night. +</p> + +<p> +It was generally agreed that they were slightly the better boat, but +whether they were good enough to overcome the advantage that the head +boat always has in rowing in clear water, was a disputed point. They +had at any rate nothing to fear from the boat behind them. Mr. +Binney's previous experience had brought him into the right state of +mind to enable him to do his best. The three bumps he had already made +had given him confidence, and his mistakes of the second night +preserved him from being over-confident. +</p> + +<p> +First Trinity made up their distance by the time they had reached the +Red Grind, and from that time there was never more than a few feet of +daylight between the two boats until the end of the race. At Ditton +they overlapped, but Mr. Binney made his shot too early, and the Hall +just managed to keep away. The enthusiasm from the supporters of the +Crescent, standing or running on the banks, had the effect of steadying +Mr. Binney's nerves. A ding-dong race ensued, right up the Long Reach, +but with all their exertion the First Trinity men were unable to +increase their distance. At the railway bridge the nose of the +pursuing boat was a foot past the rudder of the other. But Mr. Binney +knew that if he made a shot at them now all was lost. +</p> + +<p> +"Plug it in," he said in a low voice to Stroke, "and we've got them." +</p> + +<p> +Stroke did plug it in. He was nobly seconded in one last despairing +effort by the men behind him. The nose of the First Trinity boat crept +slowly but surely up, Mr. Binney pulled his left line just in the nick +of time, and First Trinity bumped the head boat not a dozen yards from +the winning post. +</p> + +<p> +A very proud man was Mr. Binney that evening when everything was over, +when they had rowed back to the boat-house with the heavy flag flapping +behind them and the cheering crowd of men accompanying them on the +bank. When he had changed and gone home to his rooms with the +pleasures of an amusing bump supper in the hall before him, he sat down +in front of his fire and went over in his mind the causes for +self-congratulation. At last he had done something which raised him +out of the common ruck of University men, something that could never be +taken away from him. He saw in imagination his rudder with the Trinity +coat-of-arms, the names and weights of the crew and the cox, and the +conquered colleges emblazoned upon it hanging up in his hall in Russell +Square. His imagination did not stop there. He saw other rudders +nailed up by its side, of which at least one should bear the combined +arms of Oxford and Cambridge. He felt that he had acquitted himself so +as to earn him Mrs. Higginbotham's undying admiration, and visited a +telegraph office immediately upon his return in order to send that +excellent woman the earliest information of his brilliant achievement. +</p> + +<p> +At the bump supper that evening Mr. Binney was the gayest of the gay. +He did not exceed his usual allowance of wine. This, in spite of the +unmannerly taunts of the <i>New Court Chronicle</i>, he had never yet done +and would have been ashamed of doing. But he was so excited by his +success that other members of the party who had not been so careful as +himself gave him full credit for having done so, and laughed +uproariously at his sallies of wit, clapped him vigorously on the back, +and displayed all the usual signs of the best of good fellowship. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney made a speech. He always did make a speech whenever there +was an opportunity. He said that this was the proudest moment of his +life. (Cheers.) He should despise himself if he thought otherwise. +(Cheers.) He thought that the cox was the most important man in a +boat. (Loud cries of "No! No!" and laughter.) Well, if he wasn't the +most important, at any rate, they couldn't get on without him, and he +was very proud to find himself in a position of that sort. He had had +triumphs in his life before now (cheers and laughter), but they were as +nothing to this. He didn't know how to say enough about it, although +he was used to public speaking. (Laughter, cries of "Union.") Some +gentleman had mentioned the word "Union." Well, he had thought at one +time that success at the Union was the best sort of success that +Cambridge could afford. He didn't think so now. Give him success on +the river—he would leave all the rest to gentlemen not so fortunate as +himself. (Loud applause and cries of "Sit down.") He saw around him a +great many friends. (Laughter.) He hoped he might call them friends. +(Cries of "Certainly," "By all means.") They were all jolly good +fellows, and so say all of us. (Cheers.) He had said before that this +was the proudest moment of his life. He would say it again. +(Laughter, and the rest of Mr. Binney's speech, which he appeared to be +about to begin all over again, was drowned by vociferous cheers which +were gradually rounded off into "For he's a jolly good fellow," sung in +chorus by everyone present.) +</p> + +<p> +At the close of the evening, just before twelve o'clock, as Mr. Binney +was going out of college, arm-in-arm with two jovial companions, the +gate was opened to admit Piper and one or two more football players who +had gained a great victory over Dublin University that afternoon in the +last match of the season, and had since celebrated the occasion by a +more protracted dinner than was good for them. +</p> + +<p> +Piper was, in fact, very drunk, and his potations always had the effect +of making him extremely quarrelsome. At this particular juncture he +was, in American phraseology, "looking for trouble." He found it in +the obnoxious person of his late butt, Mr. Binney, who came towards him +smiling, his gown put on inside out, over his somewhat disordered +evening clothes. +</p> + +<p> +The sight of Mr. Binney roused Piper's smouldering ill-humour to the +point of frenzy. With a muttered execration he went for our hero. Mr. +Binney saw him coming, and with a shriek of terror, turned round, +loosening his hold upon his two companions, and fled terrified back +towards the hall. +</p> + +<p> +Piper gave a yell, and started off in chase, but lost his footing at +the two steps leading into the Court, and enabled Mr. Binney to get a +clear start as far as the fountain, before his pursuer was up and after +him again. +</p> + +<p> +His two friends made no attempt to protect him. They shrieked with +laughter at the ridiculous spectacle, and rolled about doubled up in +their ecstasy of amusement. +</p> + +<p> +But fortunately for Mr. Binney the Great Court was full of his late +companions of the feast. "Save me, save me!" cried the poor little +man, as he ran towards a group of them near the kitchen staircase. +Piper was still a <i>bête noir</i> to a great many of the rowing men, +although with his exception the feud between oarsmen and footballers +was now quite healed. Mr. Binney ran through the astonished group, +down the narrow passage leading into the Hostels. They closed up their +ranks and let Piper run into them. There was great confusion for the +moment, and cries of "Now then, sir, where are you coming to?" and the +like. Piper forgot for the moment where he <i>was</i> going to, and in the +meantime his companions came up. One of them was Howden, who was in +the effusive after-dinner stage. +</p> + +<p> +"You're the fellows who went head of the river, aren't you?" he cried. +"You're jolly noble fellows all the lot of you, and I shall be proud to +shake hands with you all round. We're the fellows who have beaten the +Irishmen by two goals and a try to nothing. And that's all right, +isn't it?" +</p> + +<p> +It appeared to be all right, certainly, for the two groups immediately +fraternised with mutual expressions of admiration. And even Piper was +so overborne by the general good feeling that he relinquished his +intention of spilling Mr. Binney's blood, and allowed himself to be +drawn off, while our hero crept round by Neville's Court, through the +screens and out again through the Great Gate, still somewhat +frightened, and by no means so hilarious as he had been five minutes +before. +</p> + +<p> +The next morning Mr. Binney woke up feeling rather cheap, but not +without a thrill of pride when he recalled the glorious achievements of +the last four days. He went to the chapel which he was accustomed to +attend twice on a Sunday, and thought that every member of the +congregation must have heard of his prowess on the river, and be eyeing +him with admiration as he handed round the plate at the close of the +service, clad in his undergraduate's gown. As he sat at his solitary +lunch Howden came in. +</p> + +<p> +"Hullo, Binney, old chap," he said, "here you are at last. I've been +in once or twice to try and find you this morning. You did jolly well +in the races. I was there on Friday and saw you make your bump." +</p> + +<p> +"It's a splendid thing, you know, Howden," said Mr. Binney, "taking +part in a great contest like that. You know what it is, for you're a +celebrated athlete yourself. It makes you feel warm all over, doesn't +it?" +</p> + +<p> +"It makes you feel black and blue all over," said Howden, "after a game +like yesterday. We didn't do so badly, Binney, did we? We never +expected to beat them like that. Look here, I've got some of the +fellows who were playing yesterday coming to supper with me this +evening, and two of the Irish chaps who are staying here over Sunday +are coming as well. You come too, Binney. We shall have a jolly rowdy +evening, quite like old times. You're out of training now, and you +haven't had a bust since the beginning of the term. Eight o'clock in +my rooms." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney looked shocked. +</p> + +<p> +"What, on Sunday evening?" he exclaimed. "My dear Howden, I couldn't +entertain the idea for a moment." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, well," said Howden, somewhat abashed, "we shan't be doing any +harm. You must feed somewhere even if it is Sunday." +</p> + +<p> +"I always dine in hall on Sunday," said Mr. Binney, "and go to church +afterwards. I am sorry I can't join you, Howden, although, if it had +been on any other night in the week, I should have been delighted. +Those dinners we used to have were rather good fun, weren't they? I +shouldn't mind another one now if we could keep it a bit quieter. I'll +tell you what, Howden, we <i>will</i> have another dinner in my rooms +to-morrow night; just to celebrate our going head." +</p> + +<p> +"What, the old lot!" exclaimed Howden. "That will be ripping, Binney. +I've never had such jolly dinners since I've been up here as yours +were. You're such a capital good host, you know." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I like entertaining my friends," said Mr. Binney, much +gratified. "I used to enjoy those dinners myself, but they certainly +were getting rather too rowdy. We must keep a bit quieter to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +"Right you are," said Howden, and he and Mr. Binney drew out a list of +half a dozen constellations of the athletic world, who had already had +experience of Mr. Binney's hospitality in days gone by, and might be +supposed to be willing to partake of it again. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney's dinner was a repetition of those which had brought him +into disrepute during the previous term, only, instead of being quieter +than had been customary with those entertainments, it was a noisier +revel than any of them. Bumpers had to be drunk to the First Trinity +Boat Club, and to the cox of its first Lent boat. This was done before +the fish came on. By the time the <i>entrée</i> had made its appearance +success to the University Rugby Football Club had been duly honoured, +and the healths of the various members of it there present brought them +to dessert in a state of hilarious good fellowship. Mr. Binney usually +objected to bumpers, but it was pointed out to him that his refusal to +empty them would be considered a cowardly insult to his guests in whose +honour they were proposed. +</p> + +<p> +Alas! before dinner was well over, Mr. Binney was in a state the mere +imagination of which would have made him blush with shame in his more +collected moments. His face was flushed, his speech thick, and his +laughter meaningless but incessant. His guests were, most of them, in +a similar state, and the unhappy little man, instead of mildly rebuking +them for their excesses, as he had been accustomed to do, encouraged +them to further libations, and filled their glasses himself with an +unsteady hand, and giggling exhortations to make a night of it. At a +later stage of the evening Mr. Binney was on his legs making the +inevitable speech. It was an entirely incoherent speech, but his +hearers applauded it no less for that. When a gleam of intelligence +did detach itself from Mr. Binney's rambling procession of verbiage and +pierce their heated brains, the cheers and hammerings on the table rose +to fever pitch, and spurred on the poor little object to still greater +exertions. During one of these interludes, when the applause was at +its height and Mr. Binney stood leaning against the table with glassy +eye and fatuous smile waiting for the din to subside, and bracing +himself up for a further attempt, the door of the room opened, and a +tall black figure, its face wearing an expression of scandalised +amazement, stood framed in the door-way. It was the Reverend Dr. +Toller come to expostulate with the wandering sheep of his otherwise +irreproachable flock. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney was the first to notice him. He frowned slightly in a +determined effort to regain his scattered senses. Then the amiable +smile spread once more over his face as he recognised his friend. +</p> + +<p> +"Dorrertoller!" he cried, in a delighted impulse of hospitable welcome. +"Come in, my dear sir, and dring a glass o' wine. You see me, +Dorrertoller, s'rounded by m' friends, celebrelating merrificent +vickery, boclub. Genelmel, 'low me, ole friend, Dorrertoller. Come +in, ole boy. Mayself tome. Siddown." +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Binney!" said the good doctor in an awful tone. "Are you aware, +sir, of the terrible scandal you are bringing upon yourself and your +friends by this unseemly—this disgraceful conduct?" +</p> + +<p> +"Thashalri, Dorrertoll," said the unhappy Mr. Binney. "Siddow. All +ole frells here." +</p> + +<p> +It would ill become us to protract the account of this shameful scene. +Dr. Toller, shocked and horrified beyond all bounds, lifted up his +voice in expostulation and reproof to the best of his ability, but all +in vain. Mr. Binney was past taking heed of rebukes, and wandered +foolishly along, pressing the doctor to make one of the party, and +drink the health of some of the best fellows he was ever likely to +meet. That at least was the intention of his invitation, but his +enunciation not being so clear as could be wished, the warmth of his +welcome could only be gathered from his engaging smile and his +ineffectual attempts to drag a chair up to the table, a chair on which +one of his guests happened already to be sitting. Most of the other +men took Dr. Toller for a Proctor and kept quiet, while Mr. Binney used +his utmost endeavours to induce him to join them. They returned again +to their previous state of merriment when the Doctor had left the room, +having perceived that anything that he might have to say to Mr. Binney +would have to be kept until the next morning. +</p> + +<p> +Later on in the evening, a Proctor did pay them a visit, the noise +having become so insistent that it was bound to attract the attention +of any one passing down Jesus Lane. He took the names of all the +party, but Mr. Binney went to bed in happy oblivion of the event, as +well as of the advent of his pastor, and woke up in the morning with a +bad headache and a dim impression that something had happened the night +before which would cause him great uneasiness if only he could remember +what it was. +</p> + +<p> +As he sat with throbbing head and smarting eyeballs over a late cup of +tea, which he dignified by the name of breakfast, a "bull-dog" was +announced, who brought him a slip of paper requesting him to call on +the Junior Proctor at a stated time. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney groaned. He had a dim idea that he had had an unfinished +conversation with a Proctor at some previous state of his existence, +but he could not remember when. He supposed it must have been during +the previous evening, but he could not remember having gone out after +dinner. +</p> + +<p> +A little later on, a similar notice was brought to him from his Tutor. +Mr. Binney was in such a low state that he actually shed tears at this +fresh misfortune. He must have done something very bad indeed. If +only he could remember what it was! But he couldn't, and his head was +too painful to allow him to exert it to any great extent. All he knew +was that he would never be able to hold up that head again. He would +be sent down for a certainty. He would be eternally disgraced in the +eyes of all his friends, before whom he had been used to bear himself +so proudly. He grew cold when he thought of what Mrs. Higginbotham +would say to him. Then his thoughts flew with a deadly sinking of +heart to Dr. Toller and his fellow-officers in the congregation of +which Dr. Toller was the shining leader. At this moment there was a +ring at the bell, and in a few moments Dr. Toller himself was +announced. Mr. Binney buried his head in the cushions of his armchair +and wept aloud. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap14"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XIV +</h3> + +<h4> +NEMESIS +</h4> + +<p> +Dr. Toller left Mr. Binney an hour afterwards, chastened and repentant. +The full enormity of his crime had been brought home to him. His only +plea was that this was the first time such a dreadful thing had +happened. Dr. Toller did not refer in direct terms to the <i>New Court +Chronicle</i>, as he remembered in time that his wife had not told him +before he left home how its numbers had fallen into her hands. But he +drew from Mr. Binney an account of the occurrences of the term, and +amongst them of the attack that Piper had made upon him in his paper. +"I went in for revelry to some extent last term," Mr. Binney explained, +"but, even then, nothing of the sort that happened last night took +place. This term my life has been hitherto irreproachable, and I did +not deserve these attacks." +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Toller was pleased to hear it. Poor Mr. Binney was so ashamed of +himself and looked such a pitiable object bundled up in his armchair +with a despairing look on his white face and black rings under his +eyes, that he readily promised to keep the account of the previous +night's orgie from Mr. Binney's friends in Bloomsbury, and before he +went gave the repentant sinner full absolution and a great deal of very +good advice. +</p> + +<p> +When the doctor had removed himself it was time for Mr. Binney to call +on the Proctor, who was a Fellow of Jesus College. Mr. Binney crawled +along down the sunny side of the lane feeling very miserable. But the +interview was not quite so painful as he had imagined. The Proctor was +a young man with a keen sense of humour. He tried to impart a fitting +air of severity into his strictures on the disgraceful scene he had +interrupted, but spoilt it all by bursting into a peal of laughter in +the middle of his lecture. After that there was nothing further to be +done but to extort a heavy fine from the culprit and to let him go. +Mr. Binney felt somewhat relieved as he walked out through the gates of +Jesus down the passage into the lane, but his heart sank again like +lead as he remembered his coming interview with his Tutor. He had just +time enough to go into his rooms and drink a glass of milk and soda, +before it was time to repair to Trinity College to undergo the ordeal +of Mr. Rimington's displeasure. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney had to wait some time in the Tutor's ante-room. His +thoughts were very bitter as he sat turning over the pages of a book, +keenly aware of the titters and whispers of the men who were waiting +with him. +</p> + +<p> +The Tutor's face, when Mr. Binney at last entered the inner room, was +not reassuring. It wore a severe, and, to Mr. Binney's overstrung +perceptions, it seemed a contemptuous look. Mr. Rimington did not +shake hands with his pupil as was his wont, but motioned him to a chair +and plunged immediately <i>in medias res</i>. +</p> + +<p> +"You know, of course, why I have sent for you, Mr. Binney," he said. +"I have no intention of expostulating with you. I have tried that +already, and it proved to be of no avail. I simply have to say that +the college can no longer put up with the way you choose to behave +yourself, and you must go down to-day." +</p> + +<p> +"What? go down for good, sir?" said poor Mr. Binney in a broken voice. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I think so," said the Tutor. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, surely you can't be so hard as that," pleaded Mr. Binney. "Think +of the disgrace, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"I do think of the disgrace," said the Tutor, with a short laugh. "I +wish you had thought of it yourself a little sooner." +</p> + +<p> +It will be remembered that on the last occasion of a conversation +between Mr. Rimington and Mr. Binney, the latter had taken a very high +line, for which he had subsequently apologised, but not quite +adequately. Mr. Rimington had become very tired of Mr. Binney's +methods of speech and conduct, and had made up his mind to speak +shortly and sharply, and not to allow any discussion of his decision. +He was not, however, prepared for the total breakdown of Mr. Binney's +opposition to his authority. The poor little creature sitting crumpled +up before him in abject and hot-eyed misery was a very different person +from the combative self-sufficient gentleman who had resisted his +warnings in such a high-handed fashion when he had before animadverted +on his conduct, so he did not refuse to listen when Mr. Binney began to +plead with him in a piteous, broken-hearted manner. +</p> + +<p> +"I know I have disgraced myself, sir," he said, "I feel it deeply. But +such a thing will never happen again, and it has never happened before." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, pardon me, Mr. Binney," said the Tutor. "This affair is only the +climax to a consistent course of such behaviour. I have had reason to +speak to you before about it. You can't possibly have forgotten that." +</p> + +<p> +"Not about drunkenness, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I was drunk last +night, you know. I confess it. That has never happened before, and +will never happen again." +</p> + +<p> +"There are degrees of culpability, of course, in these matters," said +Mr. Rimington. "Where you seem to disagree with me is in thinking that +these disorderly meetings are allowable at all when a man of your age +and influence takes the lead in setting all rules of order and good +conduct aside." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't disagree with you at all, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I am very +sorry that anything of the sort has ever happened in my rooms. I +promise you, if you will only give me another chance, that it shall +never happen again." +</p> + +<p> +"You forget, Mr. Binney, that I ventured to impress my views upon you +at the end of last term, and warned you that if anything of the sort +happened again I should be compelled to take a serious view of it. The +first man I had to deal with at the beginning of this term had got into +trouble through—er—his companionship with you. And further than that +your name has become synonymous with disorderly behaviour throughout +the University." +</p> + +<p> +What would not Mr. Binney have given at that moment to recall the +vanished days and spend them to better advantage? The contemptible +light in which he must appear to men of his own standing was borne in +upon him like a flood, and he felt that it would indeed be better if he +left Cambridge for good and never showed his face there again. +</p> + +<p> +"I deserve to be sent down in disgrace," he said feebly. "There is +only one reason why I beg you to exercise your clemency—for the sake +of my boy." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington's mild eyes flashed fire. "I can scarcely trust myself +to speak to you on that subject," he said. "If I do so it is because I +feel it my duty as a clergyman to try and bring home to you the +enormity of your conduct towards your son. Are you incapable of——" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, don't, don't," interrupted Mr. Binney in a broken-hearted voice. +"I see it all. Nothing you could say would be so severe as what I say +to myself. I can't bear it. I can't really. But just think what an +awful thing it would be for him to have it said that his father was +sent down for drunkenness. He would bear the brand of it all his life." +</p> + +<p> +"It seems to me," said the Tutor dryly, "that you have already given +him something that he will have reason to be ashamed of all his life. +I have a great admiration for your son. I tell you candidly, Mr. +Binney, that I don't know one other undergraduate who could have held +up his head in Cambridge after what he has gone through." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, don't say any more, I beg of you," cried Mr. Binney, cut to the +heart. "And don't make things worse for him by sending me down." +</p> + +<p> +"If I thought for a moment that your staying up here would make things +easier for him," said Mr. Rimington, "I own I should hesitate, although +I don't say that my decision would be altered. But it seems to me that +the very kindest course to pursue on his account would be to prevent +his having any further cause to be shamed by your conduct up here. No, +Mr. Binney. You must go down this afternoon. I have spoken to one or +two of my colleagues about it, and our decision is irrevocable. I see +no use in protracting this painful interview." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney pleaded and besought, but all to no avail, and left his +Tutor's presence at last, a disgraced and despairing man. +</p> + +<p> +The feelings of Lucius towards his father are too painful a subject to +dilate upon. Never surely, since the wide doors of Cambridge +University were opened to all comers, had any of its members been +placed in a more disagreeable position. Looking back on this trying +time in after years, Lucius wondered how he could ever have endured +life at Cambridge for a single day. But he had attained to that state +of sympathetic intimacy with his cousin in which he could pour out some +of his troubles to her when they met, and be gently but effectually +consoled for them. Betty had never met Mr. Binney, but she knew him by +sight, and nourished a fierce and bitter enmity towards him. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius met his cousin, on the morning after his father's fall, outside +the lecture room of St. John's College, where she was engaged for an +hour three mornings in the week. The other girls who were with her +gave Lucius a glance and then hurried off through the gate, leaving +them alone. +</p> + +<p> +"Good-bye, Lucius," she said hastily, "I must go. I don't know what +those girls are running away for like that." +</p> + +<p> +"Do let me walk back with you, Betty," said Lucius. "I'm so beastly +miserable, I don't know what to do." +</p> + +<p> +"Very well, then. Just for once," said Betty, after a look at his +face. "We'll go along the Backs." +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose you haven't heard about my father last night, have you?" +asked Lucius, as they made their way across the bridge. +</p> + +<p> +"No. What about him?" asked Betty. +</p> + +<p> +"I really sometimes think he's going off his head," said Lucius +despondently. "He was so pleased at his boat going head of the river +that he gave a great feed. There was a terrific row. In the middle of +it the old fool I have to go and hear preach at home turned up. +Goodness knows what brought him. He came to see me this morning just +after breakfast, and seems to think I must have been in it too, +although he knew I wasn't there. He began a long solemn jaw, but I was +so sick I shut him up. He's an awful old outsider, and he's got +nothing to do with me, even if I had done something he didn't approve +of, which I haven't." +</p> + +<p> +"But it doesn't matter what <i>he</i> thinks, does it?" asked Betty with all +the scorn of the rector's daughter against a member of a usurping caste. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know," said Lucius dubiously. "His wife is a spiteful old +woman. Of course it will get to her ears and then it will be all over +the place. There's one good thing, I have been away from home such a +lot, and have so many friends outside, that it won't matter so much to +me as it might have done. But it will be awful for the poor old +governor. I don't think he knows what he's laying up for himself." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I shouldn't bother my head about him if I were you," said Betty +airily. "It's his own fault, and he's got himself to thank for it. +It's you I'm thinking of." Then she blushed a little. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius blushed too. "You are so awfully kind," he began, "and——" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes. Thank you," interrupted Betty, hastily. +</p> + +<p> +"But I really shouldn't know what to do if it wasn't for you," +persisted Lucius. "It's like——" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I know," interrupted Betty again. "But you haven't told me all +about last night yet, have you?" +</p> + +<p> +"No," said Lucius, his face falling again. "The row reached such a +pitch that the Proctors came in. My gyp told me that the governor was +going to be hauled this morning, and I shouldn't wonder if he were sent +down." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, that will be all the better for you, won't it?" inquired Betty, +unmoved at the awful announcement. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know. I haven't thought of that yet," Lucius admitted. "But +I'm afraid it will kill the poor old governor. I shall go and see him +when I get back. I'm awfully sorry for him, although he has been so +tiresome. But don't let's talk any more about it. We're nearly there. +I say, Betty——" +</p> + +<p> +"I think you'd better go back now," said Betty. "You've come quite far +enough," and Lucius was not bold enough to disobey her. +</p> + +<p> +He found Mr. Binney just returned from his visit to his Tutor. "It's +all over, Lucius. I'm sent down," he said hopelessly. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius was at a loss for words. The humour of the situation suddenly +struck him, and he had hard work to prevent himself smiling. +</p> + +<p> +"I've been a bad father to you, my boy," went on Mr. Binney. "I see it +all now. I wish I had behaved differently. But it is too late. All +is over. The blow has fallen. I am a disgraced man." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, come, cheer up, father," said Lucius. "I should think they would +give you another show if you promise to keep quiet in future." +</p> + +<p> +"No, they won't," said Mr. Binney. "They think I am spoiling your +chances at Cambridge. And they are quite right—oh, <i>absolutely</i> +right." +</p> + +<p> +"What nonsense," said Lucius. "Is it only on my account they have sent +you down?" +</p> + +<p> +"That chiefly," said Mr. Binney, with the calm voice of despair. "But +they have lost faith in me. And quite right too. Oh, <i>quite</i> right." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I'll tell you what, father," said Lucius, "I'll go and see +Rimington and ask him to give you another chance. We're rather pals, +and he might listen, although it's rather cheek my tackling him." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Lucius, if you only would," exclaimed Mr. Binney, grasping his son +eagerly by the arm. "I believe he would listen to you. I do really, +and it's my only chance. I thought this morning that I shouldn't care +to stay at Cambridge any longer after what has happened. But I can't +bear the thought of going down like this. It is too awful." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course not," said Lucius. "I'll go at once." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington was still receiving when Lucius presented himself in his +anteroom. After a time he found himself cordially greeted by his +father's Tutor, and sat down without an idea as to how he should begin +what he had to say. +</p> + +<p> +"I've come about my father," he said, reddening and playing with the +tassel of his cap. "I hope you'll give him another chance, sir. It +wasn't altogether his fault that all the noise was made last night, and +he'll be very careful that it doesn't happen again. It will be rather +unpleasant for me if he is sent down," he added. +</p> + +<p> +"Has your father asked you to come to me?" asked Mr. Rimington. +</p> + +<p> +"No," said Lucius, "I come of my own accord." +</p> + +<p> +"Wouldn't you be happier up here if your father were—were at home, +Binney?" +</p> + +<p> +"I shouldn't be any happier if people could say he had been sent down. +In fact, I don't think I could stand it. He'll keep pretty well in the +background after this, I should think, and I don't much mind his being +up here if he does that." +</p> + +<p> +"I can't hold out any hopes of our decision being altered," said Mr. +Rimington after a pause. "It is not I alone who am responsible for it. +But I think that your wishes in the matter should certainly be +considered. I can't say more than that at present, and, as I say, your +father had better not entertain any hopes of our decision being +reversed. If there is anything more to say, I will write to him in +London." +</p> + +<p> +With this slender thread of hope Mr. Binney travelled home to Russell +Square that afternoon in sad and lonely dejection. His head still +ached after his excesses of the previous night, and his mood was so +dark that he put off the confession which he knew he should have to +make to Mrs. Higginbotham, until the next morning. As he dined in +solitary state that evening, attended by his neat and soft-footed +maids, he found himself wondering how the habits and customs of twenty +years could have broken down so completely under the influence of new +surroundings. Two years ago he would have been the first to hold up +pious hands of horror at the mere mention of an orgie such as he had +taken part in the night before. And, having returned once more to his +accustomed manner of life, he felt just as far apart from it as he +would have done then. But he could not keep his thoughts away for long +from the dark fact that he had just been expelled from the University +for continuous bad conduct, and it will be agreed that this cannot have +been a pleasant recollection for a middle-aged gentleman with a +grown-up son. +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Toller had promised Mr. Binney that he would keep to himself all +mention of the scene he had surprised. His doing so was only another +example of the eternal self-complaisance of human nature. Dr. Toller +was about as capable of keeping anything to himself that his wife +wanted to hear about, as a puppy is of holding a stick that its master +wants to take away. At twelve o'clock Dr. Toller returned from +Cambridge to the wife of his bosom. By a quarter past, Mrs. Toller was +in possession of the main outlines of his story, which had been filled +in before the half hour struck by all the details that Dr. Toller's +memory could supply. +</p> + +<p> +"You won't tell anyone else what has happened, my dear, will you?" said +Dr. Toller, when his wife had extracted all the information from him he +was capable of affording. +</p> + +<p> +"I shall tell what I please to whomsoever I please," said Mrs. Toller. +</p> + +<p> +"But, my dear, my promise," expostulated the doctor. +</p> + +<p> +"Bother your promise!" said Mrs. Toller, as she went out of the room. +</p> + +<p> +After breakfast the next morning Mr. Binney, to whom another day had +brought no cessation of the gnawing pains of remorse, took his courage +in both hands, and putting on his hat and coat, went round to Woburn +Square. +</p> + +<p> +The maid who opened the door to him gave a little start. "Mrs. +Higginbotham is not at home, sir," she said. "But she told me to give +you this little parcel if you happened to call." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney took the parcel, neatly tied up and directed in Mrs. +Higginbotham's well-known writing. "Do you know when Mrs. Higginbotham +will be in?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +The maid hesitated. "She told me to say she was not at home, sir," she +repeated awkwardly, and Mr. Binney went down the steps with the +terrible realisation hammering at his brain, that Mrs. Higginbotham had +heard of his disgrace and refused to receive him. +</p> + +<p> +He waited until he had returned to the seclusion of his own library +before he opened the packet which she had directed to him. +</p> + +<p> +It contained all the letters he had ever written to her. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap15"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XV +</h3> + +<h4> +LUCIUS FINDS A BACKWATER +</h4> + +<p> +It was ten o'clock of a late April morning, one of those hot sunny days +which sometimes make it not unfitting that the term which in Cambridge +begins in April and ends in the middle of June should be known as the +Summer Term. The morning in Cambridge, as has been explained, is +usually devoted to books, but here was Mr. Lucius Binney of Trinity +College in a very light grey flannel suit and a straw hat apparently +making preparations for some sort of an expedition. He had collected +from different corners of the room a Japanese umbrella, two plethoric +silken cushions and a large box of chocolate creams. He put them down +on the table and looked for a moment longingly at his collection of +pipes, but finally contented himself with filling a cigarette case, +which he slipped into his pocket. At this juncture a step was heard +approaching. Lucius had just time to cover the box of chocolate creams +with a cushion before the door was opened and Mr. Benjamin Stubbs +entered the room. He was in cap and gown and carried a notebook. +</p> + +<p> +"Holloa!" he exclaimed, "going on the Backs? Not a bad idea this fine +morning. I've a good mind to cut lecture and come with you." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh I shouldn't do that, Dizzy, if I were you," said Lucius, "you'd +better go and hear what Mansell has got to say. I can crib your notes +afterwards." +</p> + +<p> +"We can both crib 'em off Hare," said Dizzy. "I should like a paddle +in a canoe. Lend us a hat and I'll leave these things here." +</p> + +<p> +"I haven't got another hat except that one with the Third Trinity +colours and you can't wear that." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, you Juggins, you can wear that and lend me the one you've got +on." +</p> + +<p> +"The other doesn't fit me very well," objected Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"What rot! why, you wear it every day. I'll tell you what it is, young +man, you've got some game on and you don't want me to come. What is +it?" +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy here took up one of the cushions on the table and disclosed the +box of chocolates which it hid. Enlightenment diffused itself over his +intelligent features. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I see, yes," he said, "Good morning, Binney, I'm afraid I shall be +late for lecture." And he betook himself out of the room. +</p> + +<p> +"Silly ass!" soliloquised Lucius. Then he gathered up his properties +and made his way out across the Great Court, which lay wide and still +beneath a smiling April sky, through the Hostel and down the narrow +lane which leads to the river and the raft, where in summer-time a +flotilla of boats and canoes is moored under the trees. Lucius +selected a Canadian canoe and deposited a cushion at either end, +supplementing those supplied by the boatmen. The chocolate creams he +stowed carefully behind his own cushion, and taking his seat pushed out +into the open water through the maze of pleasure boats which stretched +half-way across the river. He was almost alone on the water. The +rooks cawed in the high elms which fringe the pleasant gardens by the +river, the whirr of a mowing machine came from some unseen lawn close +by; there was an idle summer feeling in the air. Lucius paddled in a +leisurely manner up the river, past the terraced gardens of Trinity +Hall, the prow of his canoe breaking up the reflection of the beautiful +Clare Bridge as he passed under it, along the spacious level lawn of +King's and under the King's bridge into the darker waters bounded by +the old buildings of Queens'. The illicit tinkling of a piano came +from an open window in the new King's buildings and two men leant idly +on the parapet of the bridge and watched him as he paddled slowly +underneath. When he reached the wooden bridge of Queens', the bridge +which Sir Isaac Newton is said to have erected without a bolt or nut, +he turned round and dropped down the river again. As he neared the +King's bridge he pulled out his watch. +</p> + +<p> +"She said half-past ten," he murmured to himself. "I suppose she is +bound to be a bit late. Girls always are." +</p> + +<p> +He lay back on his cushions and allowed the canoe to drift. Opposite +to him was the entrance to a backwater, arched over with trees, and +crossed by a wooden bridge. Lucius surveyed it idly. "I wonder if she +will come down there with me," he said to himself. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment a fair vision of youth and beauty in diaphanous summer +draperies came into sight on the river bank just above him. Lucius +sprang out on to the bank and knelt down on the grass to hold the canoe +for the fair vision to step into it. It was his cousin Betty. She +looked cool and fresh and not at all as if she was doing a very bold +thing as she stepped into the wobbly craft and settled herself on the +cushions opposite him. +</p> + +<p> +"This is ripping, Betty," said Lucius. "It is most charming of you to +come out with me like this." +</p> + +<p> +"You don't think I came for the pleasure of your company, do you?" +inquired Betty. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, no, not in the least." +</p> + +<p> +"How conceited you are! You know you do think it." +</p> + +<p> +"I assure you, Betty, it never entered my head. When a girl writes to +her cousin and asks him to take her out on the river, he would be a +conceited ass, as you say, to imagine for a moment that she wanted to +go with him." +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't say I didn't want to go with you. If I must go at all I +would just as soon go with you as any one." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know that there's any necessity for you to go at all if you +don't want to." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, but you don't know everything." +</p> + +<p> +"Why did you come, then?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'll tell you when we get back again. Now paddle up to the Bridge of +Sighs." +</p> + +<p> +"How mysterious you are! But there's no hurry. Let us go down this +little backwater. You can't think how jolly it is. There are shady +trees on one side and a field with daisies and cows and buttercups and +things on the other." +</p> + +<p> +"No thank you, I don't want to go down a backwater. I want to paddle +down to St. John's and back." +</p> + +<p> +"What for?" +</p> + +<p> +"I shan't tell you yet." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I shan't paddle." +</p> + +<p> +"How tiresome you are, Lucius! You spoil all my pleasure in your +society." +</p> + +<p> +"You said you didn't take any pleasure in my society just now." +</p> + +<p> +"No more I do. Now paddle along, there's a good boy." +</p> + +<p> +"Who is that female on the bank taking such an interest in us?" +</p> + +<p> +"She isn't a female. Don't be rude. She's one of my particular +friends. Now go on please." +</p> + +<p> +"What is she doing there? Why doesn't she go home?" +</p> + +<p> +"She will, when we have been up to the Bridge of Sighs and back, and I +shall go with her. Now do paddle on and be quick. I shall get into a +row, you know, if anyone else sees me here." +</p> + +<p> +"I shan't go on until you tell me what all this is about. Don't get +into a temper. If you kick the bottom of the boat like that your foot +will go through and we shall both be in the water." +</p> + +<p> +"You really are too provoking, Lucius. I'll never speak to you again +if you don't go on directly." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius began to paddle on slowly. "Now, tell me," he said, "why you +wanted to come." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if you must know, that girl betted me a box of chocolates that I +wouldn't, and I do love them so and I've spent all last quarter's +allowance and can't afford to buy any. Now do go on, Lucius, there's a +good boy. We have only got to get up to the Bridge of Sighs and back, +and I shall get them." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius stopped again. "I don't know that I want you to get them +particularly," he said, "after what you have said about not wanting to +come with me. Didn't you want to come with me a bit?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, of course not." +</p> + +<p> +"Not a little bit?" +</p> + +<p> +"No." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I shan't go on." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh—oh—oh! I feel as if I should like to throw something at you." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, why don't you? Look, there's the girl on the bank grinning at +you. How pleased she'll be if I let her win." +</p> + +<p> +"Horrid thing, she is! But I hate you worse still. I feel as if I +could do anything to you now." +</p> + +<p> +"What, hurt poor little Cousin Lucy? Oh, Betty, for shame!" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if you won't go on, turn back then, and I'll get out. Only I'll +never speak to you again as long as I live." +</p> + +<p> +"I say, Betty, are you very fond of chocolates?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I am, but I wouldn't sit here for another five minutes for all +the chocolates in the world. Turn round and go back, please." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius put his hand behind his back, and drew out the big box already +mentioned. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here; let's stop and eat these here, while that girl looks on. +Then we'll go up to St. John's and back and you can have hers too." +</p> + +<p> +This plan commended itself to Betty, and she spent a happy ten minutes +while the girl on the bank strolled about and pretended to be admiring +the Chapel of King's and the beautiful College of Clare, which are both +seen to advantage at the point where the canoe had stopped. +</p> + +<p> +There is a time when even Buszard's most expensive confections cease to +charm. When this time had arrived for Betty, she said, "I don't much +care if I don't get the others now, but I know I shall want them +to-morrow, so paddle on, Lucius. I'm much more pleased with you now." +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you, Betty," said Lucius, and the canoe proceeded on its way, +under the Clare, Hostel, and Trinity Bridges with the graceful willows +sweeping the water, round the curve where the classical front of the +Trinity library looks severely towards the paddocks and the elms, and +under the wall of the Master of Trinity's garden, where a blossoming +tree showed a mass of delicate pink against the red-tile gables of +Neville's Court, under yet another bridge flanked by the stone eagles +of St. John's, and between the walls of that college until they reached +their goal, the covered bridge, which, through no merit of its own, has +usurped the name of the Bridge of Sighs. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you," said Betty. "Now be quick and get back. What a sell for +that girl! and we haven't met anybody to matter either." +</p> + +<p> +"Plenty of time for that. We've got to get all the way back again. I +didn't tell you before, because I thought you would be frightened, but +you remember Dizzy whom you met in my rooms last term when your mother +was up?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I hope he isn't coming out, is he?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I'm afraid he is. It's an old standing engagement; he promised +to row a party of Newnham dons—seven of them—on the Backs this +morning." +</p> + +<p> +For one moment Betty's face blanched with terror. Then she said, "You +are a donkey, Lucius. Hurry up, please." +</p> + +<p> +But Lucius wasn't going to hurry up. He was very well content with his +present position. Betty reclined opposite to him in a graceful +attitude, the brilliant colour of the Japanese umbrella a setting to +her pretty face. +</p> + +<p> +"Why did you put on that pretty frock?" asked Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"Because it is so hot; just like summer." +</p> + +<p> +"I know why you put it on." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course you do when I've just told you." +</p> + +<p> +"You put it on because you wanted me to think how pretty you looked in +it." +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't do anything of the sort. Don't be so silly." +</p> + +<p> +"You do look awfully pretty in it, you know." +</p> + +<p> +"Now, Lucius, if you begin saying that sort of thing I shall get out." +</p> + +<p> +"All right. The river is shallow here. It won't come much above your +shoulders." +</p> + +<p> +"Be quiet, and go on." +</p> + +<p> +"I am going on. I say, Betty!" +</p> + +<p> +"Well?" +</p> + +<p> +"Do you remember those lectures last October term?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, pretty well; I've got the notes of them at home if you want them." +</p> + +<p> +"Bother the notes! Do you remember how regular I was?" +</p> + +<p> +"How should I? I didn't know you then." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, you wicked story! You knew who I was perfectly well, you little +witch, and you let me go on like that for two whole terms without +making a sign. It was cruel of you." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, did you expect me to stop you in the street and say I was your +cousin, when you had never taken the trouble to call on me?" +</p> + +<p> +"You know I thought you were at Girton. Father said you were, and +there <i>is</i> someone called German there." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, and you went to Girton such a lot, didn't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"I could swear now when I think what an idiot I was." +</p> + +<p> +"Then don't do it, please, although I quite agree with you. And, of +course, you were much too grand to come and see us at Christmas." +</p> + +<p> +"Confound it! I say, Betty, was it you who got me asked there?" +</p> + +<p> +"I certainly shouldn't think of doing so again. And it was mother who +asked you last vacation. I had nothing to do with it." +</p> + +<p> +"Then it <i>was</i> you. Betty, you are a dar——" +</p> + +<p> +"Now, then, be quiet, please." +</p> + +<p> +"You and John are coming to us in town for a week, directly after term." +</p> + +<p> +"Poor old John. I wonder whatever he would say if he saw me now!" +</p> + +<p> +They had now passed Clare again, and were gliding slowly along between +the pleasant meadow and the great lawn towards King's bridge. +</p> + +<p> +"I say, Betty," said Lucius, "I don't want to frighten you, but who is +that on the bridge?" +</p> + +<p> +"I should think the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Newnham waiting +for us," answered Betty without turning round. +</p> + +<p> +"No, but really, I do believe it is John." +</p> + +<p> +Betty turned round and saw a man in a straw hat with a green and black +ribbon leaning over the bridge. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it is," she said, blushing scarlet, but speaking quite +unconcernedly, "he ought to be working. I shall blow him up for it." +</p> + +<p> +"Shall we turn round? He hasn't spotted us yet." +</p> + +<p> +"Turn round? Whatever for? You don't suppose I'm frightened of John, +do you?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know. You look rather as if you were." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course I'm not. But I don't know what he will think, and I should +look so idiotic if I began to explain." +</p> + +<p> +"What about that backwater?" +</p> + +<p> +"Is it very pretty?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, very. Hold your umbrella towards the bridge as we go round the +corner and he won't see you. I'll pull my hat over my face." +</p> + +<p> +So the canoe glided under the little wooden bridge and into the still, +shaded water beyond. +</p> + +<p> +The other girl, who was still walking about along the river bank, and +had seen it disappear, waited for an hour, and then went away furious, +half intending to report Miss Betty Jermyn to the authorities of her +college. Directly she had gone, the canoe came sliding out into the +river again. +</p> + +<p> +Betty was speaking. +</p> + +<p> +"I shouldn't much mind if John did see us now, should you, Lucius?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not a bit, darling," answered the happy Lucius. "But it wasn't John +at all. I looked when you were holding the umbrella in front of your +face." +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +Our narrative has dwelt so long on a series of painful and +discreditable events, that it is hoped that the account of how Lucius +and Betty, boy and girl as they were, made up their minds to spend +their lives together, may have dissipated the gloom which the +sympathetic reader will have experienced in following the chequered +career of Mr. Binney. We must now go back a little and fill up the gap +which we have left between the end of February and the end of April. +</p> + +<p> +And first let us say that the very time Lucius and Betty were cooing +like a pair of young doves in the seclusion of that backwater of the +Cam, which now holds for them more tender memories than any other spot +in the world, Mr. Binney was still in evidence as an undergraduate +member of the University of Cambridge. Lucius's plea had been +successful. A week after Mr. Binney's return to Russell Square he had +received a letter from Mr. Rimington, to inform him that he might come +up again at the beginning of the following term, but that the slightest +breach of discipline on his part in the future would mean a sentence of +instant dismissal from which there would be no appeal. +</p> + +<p> +But alas! this letter, welcome as its contents were, did not suffice to +raise Mr. Binney from the despondency into which he had fallen. After +the receipt of Mrs. Higginbotham's mute but eloquent dismissal he had +passed a week of such black despair that he could never look back upon +it in after life without shuddering. He had beaten his wings against +the doors of Mrs. Higginbotham's dwelling, but in vain. There was no +admittance for him. He had importuned her by post. His letters +remained unanswered. He scarcely knew how to bear the hard fate that +he had brought upon himself. He was all alone in the house, for Lucius +had gone straight from Cambridge to Norfolk, and was now engaged in the +Reverend Mr. Jermyn's pleasant rectory house and garden in laying the +train which eventually culminated in the scene between him and Betty +recounted at the beginning of this chapter. He would have gone down to +his place of business, but he was ashamed to face his manager and his +clerks. He thought that every one would know he had been sent down +from Cambridge. +</p> + +<p> +As a matter of fact, this particular event of his University career +never did become known to any but a very few. Even Mrs. Toller did not +know it, although Mr. Binney was convinced that she must have done, for +she cut him pointedly in Gower Street one afternoon as he crept +miserably along taking a little air and exercise, and audibly +instructed her daughter to do the same, as Mr. Binney raised his hat. +</p> + +<p> +After that he was not surprised to receive a letter from his fellow +deacons of Dr. Toller's chapel requesting him to resign his office, +which he did that day with an added pang of shame, and resolved that, +as he had now made the Baptist community too hot to hold him, he would +become a Wesleyan Methodist, and work his way up to a position of +authority in that body. He also made up his mind to let the house in +Russell Square, which was far too large for himself and Lucius, and +take a flat in Earl's Court, since Mrs. Higginbotham seemed to be made +of adamant, and there seemed very little chance now of her ever gracing +his establishment. With all these wrenches in his life, actual and +imminent, it may be imagined that Mr. Binney was not a happy man at +this time. +</p> + +<p> +When Mr. Rimington's letter came, he decided to make one more appeal to +Mrs. Higginbotham. He told her that he was going back to Cambridge, +and intended to lead a very different life in the future from that of +the past. Might he nourish a hope that if he did something to make up +for past disgrace, Mrs. Higginbotham would forgive him and smile on him +once more? +</p> + +<p> +To his intense relief and tearful joy Mrs. Higginbotham replied to his +letter. It appeared that he was not to be debarred from all hope. But +he was not to be allowed to see Mrs. Higginbotham again until he had +done something definite at Cambridge to atone for his past misconduct. +</p> + +<p> +"I do not mean success in your play-hours, Peter," wrote Mrs. +Higginbotham. "That you have already attained, and it has been the +means of leading you astray. Such success as that will never restore +my lost confidence in you. You must come to be well spoken of by +masters and pupils alike. You must rise to the top of your classes, +and acquit yourself well in your examinations. When you have done that +you may come and see me again. Until then the memory of the dreadful +trouble you have brought upon yourself and upon me, who trusted you, +must abide with me. I do not wish to load you with reproaches. Your +own conscience must be a very heavy burden for you to bear. But I +could not bear to see you with the account that one who shall be +nameless gave me of your conduct and appearances still fresh in my +memory." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney stifled his renewed feelings of remorse and wrote to ask if +the passing of his Little-go in the following June might be considered +a passport to Mrs. Higginbotham's society? Mrs. Higginbotham replied, +Yes. If he passed that examination well and behaved immaculately in +the meantime he might consider himself on the old footing with her. So +Mr. Binney took heart, re-engaged the useful Minshull and retired to +Cornwall for the Easter vacation, where he ploughed away at his studies +so energetically that Minshull held out hopes of his attaining a second +class in one part at least of the examination. +</p> + +<p> +When Lucius paddled his canoe out of the backwater with Betty sitting +opposite to him in a flutter of dimples and happiness, there was +literally no cloud on his horizon. He had been up at Cambridge now for +three weeks and his father had never once given him occasion to wish +himself away. Mr. Binney behaved himself irreproachably. In fact, if +he had kept himself in the background as he was doing now from the time +he had entered the University, Lucius would have had no reason to be +ashamed of him at all. Even as it was, the contrast of what Mr. Binney +was now and what he had been when he first came up was so great that +the relief felt by Lucius almost made up for the distress he had +previously undergone. Mr. Binney as a subject for discussion had +somewhat lost interest by this time, and Lucius lived much in the same +way as he would have done if his father had never come to Cambridge. +Mr. Binney, whose nature was elastic, had recovered a little of his +self-importance now that he had nothing to fear from outraged +officialdom, and was rather inclined to patronise his son, and +generally to assume the high parental air with which he had treated him +before his own arrival in Cambridge. +</p> + +<p> +But Lucius, whose appeal had saved his father from expulsion, took it +all in excellent part, and was only too thankful that things were not +worse. He could have borne a great deal more and thought nothing of it +now that Betty had at last allowed him to put to her the all-important +question, and had given him the answer he wanted. He whistled gaily as +he walked up to his rooms from the river and thought himself the +luckiest fellow in the world. +</p> + +<p> +At the entrance to Whewell's Court he met Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"I've done it, old man," he said with a beaming face. "You're the +first person I've told about it." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I'm sure I'm extremely flattered," answered Dizzy, "although I +haven't the slightest notion what you're talking about." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going to be married, Dizzy," said Lucius. "Will you be my best +man?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I'm going to play racquets at two," said Dizzy. "If you could +put it off till to-morrow perhaps I could——" +</p> + +<p> +"No, but really, Ben, I asked Betty this morning, and it's all right." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear old man," said Dizzy, grasping him warmly by the hand, while a +bright smile lit up his ingenuous features, "I couldn't have been +better pleased if I'd done it myself!" +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap16"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XVI +</h3> + +<h4> +THIRD TRINITY MAKES A BUMP +</h4> + +<p> +There never was such a little man as Mr. Binney for getting knocked +down flat and picking himself up again as cocky as ever. Lucius's +announcement of his engagement to his cousin Betty brought him to his +feet as pompous as if he had never been fined by a Proctor or rebuked +by a Dean. +</p> + +<p> +"I never heard of such a thing," he said indignantly. "Getting engaged +to be married at your age! Why, it's ridiculous. I won't have it. +That's flat." +</p> + +<p> +"What won't you have, father?" asked Lucius. "You can't stop my being +engaged to her, you know. That's over and done with." +</p> + +<p> +"It is not over and done with, sir," said Mr. Binney. "The engagement, +if there is one, must be broken off." +</p> + +<p> +"Why?" asked Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +"Because I say so," said his father. +</p> + +<p> +"You ought to give me a reason," said Lucius. "I'm not a child. I +love her and she loves me. Why shouldn't we be married? Of course I +don't mean now, but in two years' time or so, when you make me a +partner in the business." +</p> + +<p> +"You'll never be a partner in the business," said Mr. Binney, "if you +persist in this folly. You're a boy and she's a girl, and I won't have +it. It's ridiculous." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course she's a girl. I shouldn't want to marry her if she were an +old woman," said Lucius. "If you can't give me any better reason than +that, father, I don't think you're treating me fairly." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney laid down the law for half-an-hour or so longer. He did not +produce a better reason for refusing his sanction to the engagement, +not having a better one to produce, unless he had told Lucius that he +was objecting simply for the pleasure of asserting his authority, which +was about the long and short of it. Lucius left him at last, somewhat +dispirited, and sought the society of Dizzy, his friend. +</p> + +<p> +"Governor won't hear of it," he said, laconically, as he threw himself +into an easy chair. +</p> + +<p> +"Why not?" asked Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"Wants to show his independence, I fancy," said Lucius. "He talked a +powerful lot of rot. Told me he'd turn me out of the house if I didn't +break it off." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, he'll come round," said Dizzy encouragingly. "I know his little +ways. You stick to it. You'll find yourself settled in a +semi-detached villa at Brixton in a twelve-month, bringing home a +basket of fish for dinner, and making a row about the water-rate. +It'll turn out right in the end. You see if it don't." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't see much chance of it," said Lucius despondently. "The +governor swears he won't allow me enough to marry on for five years at +least. I've a good mind to take to gambling and try and pick up a bit +that way." +</p> + +<p> +"Rub your eyes, old man," said Dizzy. "This is Cambridge. It isn't a +novel by Alan St. Aubyn, although you <i>are</i> in love with a Newnham +girl, and the first fellow I've ever known up here who's gone anywhere +near it. Not that they're not regular toppers, some of them," he added +hastily, anxious to clear himself from any suspicion of being wanting +in chivalry. "But that sort of thing don't happen, as they say in the +play. And that's all about it." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, it's happened with me," said Lucius. "And I'm pretty well down +in the mouth about it." +</p> + +<p> +"Look here," said Dizzy. "Shall I go and tackle your old governor? I +daresay he'd listen to me." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius laughed. "I won't stop you," he said, "but it won't be any +good." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll see," said Dizzy. "I'll go at once." +</p> + +<p> +When Lucius left his father, Mr. Binney began to turn over in his mind +the news he had received. He was not really displeased at it now he +came to think it over. Betty Jermyn was a very charming girl, and +there was no objection to her on the score of blood relationship, for +her mother had only been a second cousin of his wife's. They were both +very young, it is true, certainly too young to marry yet; but then they +did not want to marry yet. As far as money was concerned, Mr. Binney +fully intended to take Lucius into partnership with him in two or three +years' time. And even if the girl should prove to be penniless, as was +probable, Lucius would have quite enough to marry on directly he gave +him a share in the business. At this point in his ruminations Dizzy +entered the room. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, Mr. Binney!" he said. "I thought I'd just look you up as I was +passing. How's the work getting on?" +</p> + +<p> +"Very well, thank you, Stubbs," replied Mr. Binney, with a pre-occupied +air. "Have you heard anything about this nonsense between Lucius and +his cousin?" +</p> + +<p> +"What, Miss Jermyn?" asked Dizzy. "Yes. I did hear they were thinking +of getting married or something of that sort. I didn't take much +notice of it." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you don't think Lucius is in earnest about it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I wouldn't say that. I should say he was in devilish deep +earnest." +</p> + +<p> +"Now, look here, Stubbs," said Mr. Binney. "Don't you think it's a +very ridiculous thing a boy not much over twenty getting engaged to be +married?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if you ask me for a plain answer, I can't say I do. I believe +in early marriages myself. It don't come so hard on the children. Now +look at my case. My old governor didn't marry till he was past fifty. +What's the consequence? When I go down from this place and want to go +about a bit and amuse myself, I shall have to sit by his bedside and +hold his hand. I'm fond of my old governor, but it isn't good enough." +</p> + +<p> +"That is a point, certainly," said Mr. Binney, thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, and look at the other side of the question," continued Dizzy. +"You married young yourself, I take it, and here you are at the prime +of life with a son old enough to be a companion to you. Old enough! +Why, bless me, you're the younger of the two, and that's a fact." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney was very much impressed by this argument. "There is a good +deal in what you say, Stubbs," he remarked. "I don't want to be hard +on the boy, of course, and I've no objection to the girl personally. +She seems a very nice girl, what little I've seen of her." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, <i>she's</i> all right. She's a topper," said Dizzy. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course I've got to keep up my authority, you know," pursued Mr. +Binney. "It won't do to slack the rein yet awhile." +</p> + +<p> +"By George, no," said Dizzy. "I should be a whale on parental +authority myself if I were in your place. Still, I don't think you'll +find Lucius disposed to question your decision. He told me himself he +had the utmost faith in your judgment and should follow your advice +whatever it might cost him." +</p> + +<p> +"Did he really tell you that?" inquired Mr. Binney, somewhat surprised. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, he didn't put it quite in that way," admitted Dizzy. "But +that's about what it came to." +</p> + +<p> +"Then if he feels like that about it," said Mr. Binney, "I shall put no +further obstacles in his path. He's a good boy, Lucius, and I'm +pleased with him." +</p> + +<p> +"He's got a good father," said Dizzy. "That's about the size of it," +and he took himself off to inform Lucius that he had managed everything +for him in a perfectly satisfactory manner. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney had asserted his authority and was content. Subject to the +approval of Betty's parents, she and Lucius were allowed to consider +themselves engaged, with the prospect of marriage when Lucius should +reach the age of twenty-three. Mr. and Mrs. Jermyn made no objections. +Lucius had made himself very popular in the Norfolk rectory, and he was +a good match for their daughter from a worldly point of view. He went +about Cambridge for the rest of that term in the seventh heaven of +happiness. +</p> + +<p> +A few days after Lucius's future had been satisfactorily settled for +him, Mr. Binney had occasion to call on his Tutor. He now no longer +looked upon this as an ordeal. The sternest official critic could have +found no flaw in his behaviour during that part of the term that was +past, and he had no intention of giving any occasion for complaint +during the remainder of his residence in Cambridge. He could hold up +his head before anybody, and entered the Tutor's presence with an air +of conscious worth. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington received him pleasantly and attended to the business upon +which Mr. Binney had come. "I hope you are feeling happy amongst us +now that things are going more smoothly, Mr. Binney," he said as he +blotted the paper in front of him. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you," said Mr. Binney, "University life is full of interest to +those who know how to value it." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Rimington looked at him and smiled. "You have found out how to +value it now, have you?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly," said Mr. Binney. "I hope, sir, that you do not intend to +allude to past mistakes. I should resent such remarks on your part." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, not at all," said Mr. Rimington hastily, "we have had no cause to +complain of you this term, Mr. Binney, and I have no wish to remind you +of what is over and done with. I hope you are getting on well with +your work." +</p> + +<p> +"I expect to take a first in both parts of the examination," said Mr. +Binney, rising. "Good-morning, sir." +</p> + +<p> +As the summer term passed quickly away with its feverish work and its +incessant pleasures, for it is the term when examinations closely +jostle its crowded gaieties, Mr. Binney found himself nearing two +important events. In one week about the beginning of June he was to go +in for both parts of his Little-go, and at the end of it to steer the +First Trinity first boat in the May races. With regard to his +examination, he felt confident of acquitting himself well. That he was +over-confident was shown by his boast to Mr. Rimington, for it is not +out of material such as himself that first classes are made, even in +the most elementary examination that Cambridge affords. But he had +worked so hard that he was certain of passing, and he looked forward +with trembling hope to a renewal of his intercourse with Mrs. +Higginbotham as a reward of his success. In being chosen to steer the +representative oarsmen of First Trinity he had been extremely +fortunate. When he had so disgraced himself in the previous term after +the success of his boat in the Lent races, Mirrilees had sworn that he +should never again steer a boat with which he had anything to do. But +one of the coxswains tried for the first boat had fallen ill, others +had proved unsatisfactory, and by the middle of term, by which time Mr. +Binney had already proved that his manner of life would be innocuous +for the future, Mirrilees had relented, and he was installed in the +proud position that he so coveted. Trinity Hall was the head boat on +the river, First Trinity was second, and Third Trinity was behind them. +All three were considered equally good, and no one could safely +prophesy what the result of the races would be so far as they were +concerned. The Hall men laughed at the idea of losing their place; the +First Trinity men expected to bump them, and said so; while Third +Trinity kept quiet, but expected to find themselves in the second place +if not head of the river by the time the races were over. +</p> + +<p> +Lucius was rowing bow in the Third Trinity boat, and his quiet +confidence that Third were a better crew than First exasperated Mr. +Binney, who wouldn't hear of it. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't talk such nonsense," he said in an annoyed tone, when Lucius +ventured to advance the opinion that Third would finish head of the +river and First second. "We shall row away from you, and catch the +Hall at Ditton on the first night." +</p> + +<p> +"We shall see," said Lucius calmly. +</p> + +<p> +"No, we shall not see, sir," said Mr. Binney angrily. "I mean we +<i>shall</i> see. And we shall see that I am right." He had quite +recovered his bombastic tone, only he had learnt by bitter experience +to quell it, except when addressing his son, who was too good-tempered +to resent it. +</p> + +<p> +Betty, of course, showed the utmost interest in the prospects of the +Third Trinity crew. She was delighted when she heard that they were to +row behind the boat which was to be steered by Mr. Binney, for she +still maintained a deep-rooted prejudice against her future +father-in-law, in spite of the welcome he had given her as Lucius's +intended bride. "If they bump them, and I see it," she said to one of +her friends, the girl from whom she had won the box of chocolate +creams, "I think I shall scream with joy. Oh, won't cousin Peter's +face be worth seeing when he has to hold up his hand and acknowledge he +has been beaten. I'd give worlds to see it." +</p> + +<p> +"You show a very vindictive spirit," said her friend. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney's time was fully occupied between putting the finishing +touches to his reading, and his work on the river. He had almost +entirely dropped out of the social side of University life. Although +his wings had been clipped, and he would now have been a quite harmless +companion, the men with whom he might have associated, had he behaved +differently when he first came up, still looked rather shyly on him; +and he had entirely dropped the society of men like Howden, for he had +learnt such a lesson that he would have been almost frightened of +results if one of them had even come into his rooms. Indeed, the poor +little man led a very dull life, and when he had time to think about +it, on Sundays perhaps, or for half-an-hour after his work was done, +and before he went to bed, he often asked himself what was the use of +his staying up at Cambridge at all, since so much of what he had hoped +to gain from the place seemed to have been an illusive dream. He had +lost his Martha, at any rate for the present, and in his moments of +insight he could not disguise from himself the fact that he was +unpopular, although he endeavoured to carry off the conviction with an +added bumptiousness of manner which did not endear him to those with +whom he came in contact. He would probably have made up his mind to +leave Cambridge after this term, when he would have passed one +examination and attained to a considerable measure of success on the +river, but one consideration deterred him. He hoped to be chosen to +steer the University boat in the following spring, and on the chance of +having that ambition realised he would have stayed on at Cambridge if +everyone in the place had cut him. +</p> + +<p> +June came and brought the roses, and with them the anxieties of +Triposes and all the multitude of lesser examinations. Mr. Binney went +in for the Little-go. All day long he sat at a narrow desk in the Corn +Exchange, that classical building which the University of Cambridge +periodically hires for the purpose of putting her sons through their +facings, and wrote assiduously, only leaving off now and again to gaze +up at the roof with an expression of agonised effort, or to rest his +brain for a minute by idly reading the names on the corn dealers' +lockers which lined the walls. On these occasions he would find his +thoughts wandering off to business affairs, for the corn dealers' names +meant considerably more to Mr. Binney than to the other few hundred +undergraduates who attained a short-lived familiarity with them during +those few days of effort. But when he found his thoughts slipping he +would bring them back with a frown and wrestle eagerly with his +translations and his problems, for the card nailed on to the desk +before him reminded him that he was "Binney of Trinity," and that Peter +Binney of the Whitechapel Road must be ignored at least for the next +few days. +</p> + +<p> +The examination lasted from the beginning of the week until Friday, and +the May races began on that day. The hotels and lodgings throughout +the town gradually filled up with ladies, old and young, plain and +pretty, amiable and perhaps ill-tempered, although the smiling faces +one met in all the streets might have given the impression that all the +bad-tempered ladies had been left at home. But Mr. Binney took very +little notice of the change. By day he slaved in the Corn Exchange. +After his afternoon's work was over he went out with his crew on the +river. In the evening he looked up his subjects for the following day +and went to bed early with his mind full of books and boats. Even Mrs. +Higginbotham retired into the background of his mind, and other things +were forgotten entirely. By the time the examination was over Mr. +Binney was rather despondent. He had done fairly well, but not so well +as he had expected. But he remembered a saying of his coach: "If you +think you have done <i>rather</i> badly you may have done well. If you +think you have done <i>very</i> badly, you probably have." He knew he had +not done very badly, so he took heart, dismissed the Little-go from his +mind entirely, and threw himself heart and soul into anticipations of +success in the races. We have already described the gay scene on the +river bank at Ditton Corner in the May races, and one bumping race is +very much like another; so the experiences of Mr. Binney, when he had +steered in the previous Lent races, were not unlike those he underwent +in the Mays. Of course he was now in a much more important position, +and his appearance in the coxswain's seat of the First Trinity boat, as +the First Division rowed down to the starting-point, never failed to +cause a flutter of amusement and inquiry to go through the waiting +crowd at Ditton Corner, which brought a blush to the cheek of Betty +Jermyn, who was generally to be found in a boat or on the bank, in a +position from which she could see everything that was going on. +</p> + +<p> +She did not waste much time, however, on the contemplation of Mr. +Binney, in his dark blue coat and speckled straw hat, for in the bows +of the boat just in front of him, as they rowed down in reversed order, +was a slim muscular figure whose eyes eagerly sought the crowded ranks +of the onlookers as the crews rested for a minute on their oars before +they went swinging round the bend to their stations. Betty was very +proud of her lover then, for even her inexperienced eyes could see that +the grace and ease with which he rowed were something to be admired, +and poor little Mr. Binney sank still lower in her esteem as he gave +the words of command "Get ready all! Forward all! Are you ready? +Paddle!" which was the signal for his boat to move on. +</p> + +<p> +On the first night of the races there was no change in the position of +the three head boats. Third Trinity drew up to First at Ditton Corner, +but then fell away and finished at about their distance. First Trinity +gained on the Hall, but never got within a length of them. Mr. Binney +steered with great judgment, and was told that he could not have done +better, but he was disappointed at not catching the head boat and a +little alarmed at Third Trinity having come so close to them during the +early part of the race. +</p> + +<p> +"They always bustle up like that at first," said Mirrilees, to whom he +confided his tremors. "We shall keep away from them all right, and I +hope we shall catch the Hall to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney was comforted, but on the next night Third not only got to +within a length of them at Grassy Corner but hustled them right up the +Long Reach and very nearly caught them at the railway bridge. This +pursuit seemed, however, to have increased their own pace, for it drove +them right on to Trinity Hall, whom they very nearly succeeded in +bumping. All three boats passed the winning post overlapping, but if +Mr. Binney had made a shot at the head boat he would almost certainly +have missed it, and the boat behind would almost as certainly have run +into them. +</p> + +<p> +He was warmly congratulated on his presence of mind by the Captain, but +he went home to his rooms by no means at ease, for he now saw plainly +that Third Trinity were just as likely to bump First as First Trinity +were to catch Trinity Hall. He was as keenly anxious as any member of +his crew to go head of the river, and he felt that not only to fail in +that object but to be taken down a place instead would be more than he +could bear. +</p> + +<p> +It was characteristic of Mr. Binney, as may already have been gathered, +to throw himself heart and soul into what he happened to be doing for +the moment. He had entirely dismissed all thoughts of his late +examination from his mind, and even Mrs. Higginbotham scarcely entered +his thoughts during the whole of the next day, which was a Sunday, as +he walked or sat and went over, in his mind all the events of the last +two races and the probabilities of those that were to come. He was +alone all day, for he now had very few friends, and Sunday was for +Lucius a happy day spent mostly in Betty's charming society. So Mr. +Binney brooded, and by-and-bye dark thoughts began to enter his mind. +</p> + +<p> +During the progress of Saturday's race, when First Trinity had been +chased all the way up the Long Reach by Third, Mr. Binney had cast one +fleeting glance behind him, and had seen the little indiarubber ball on +the nose of the Third Trinity boat within a few inches of his own +rudder, while the back of his son was swinging regularly and steadily +behind it. An unreasoning anger and jealousy had taken hold of his +mind. It was as much as he could do to prevent himself from shouting +out to Lucius to ask him where he was coming to. It seemed to him an +intolerable thing that he should be prevented from gaining something +that he wanted by the action of his own son, and the more he thought of +it the more intolerable it seemed. He had only to say a word to +Lucius, and Third Trinity would keep away from him, for it was quite +certain that if one man in the boat "sugared" they would have no chance +of making a bump. +</p> + +<p> +Should he say that word? That was the black thought that held Mr. +Binney in its grip during the whole of that pleasant June Sunday, when +Cambridge was full of life and gaiety, and he only wandered about +lonely and distraught. It would not be sportsman-like behaviour +certainly, but Mr. Binney had not been brought up to be a sportsman, +and the iniquity of the proceeding did not strike him very forcibly. +It also never entered his head that Lucius would disobey his behests if +he brought pressure to bear on him. Lucius was entirely dependent on +his father, and could be threatened with being immediately taken away +from Cambridge if he refused to do what he was told. Mr. Binney had +worried himself into such a fever of desire that he could not bring +himself to look upon his possible defeat with the slightest equanimity. +He would have preferred that his boat should go head of the river on +the merits of its crew, but rather than not go head at all, he was +prepared to take any steps that would bring about what he desired. +</p> + +<p> +But the morning light happily brought better counsels. He dismissed +his half-formed intention of tampering with a member of the Third +Trinity crew, and went down to the river with renewed hopes. +</p> + +<p> +The First Trinity men rowed like heroes and got up to the head boat at +Ditton Corner. Third were pressing them hard, but lost a little by bad +steering. +</p> + +<p> +The shouts from the bank were deafening. Mr. Binney lost his head and +made shot after shot. If he had waited, his crew would have made their +bump. But in the meantime they lost ground, and Third was creeping up +again. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney turned round in his seat and saw a long sharp point with a +little ball at the end of it dancing gaily past his rudder. Behind it +was the back of his son, swinging regularly. +</p> + +<p> +"Keep off!" roared Mr. Binney, and made another dab at the Head boat. +Then he turned round again. The little ball was within reach of him, +and behind it was Lucius rowing more vigorously than ever. Mr. Binney +was aware of the ball and the back, and nothing else in all the world. +</p> + +<p> +He lost his head completely and turned round in his seat, half rising, +pulling his right rudder line, and so crammed his boat right on to the +high bank under the tow-path. +</p> + +<p> +"Catch a crab, or you go down to-morrow," he shrieked to Lucius. +</p> + +<p> +The next moment, he could never recall how, he found himself +floundering in the river, in an inextricable confusion of boats, oars, +and shouting, struggling humanity. He could not swim. As he rose to +the surface the blade of an oar hit him on the head. He went down +again, and gave himself over, but when he came up the second time he +felt himself grasped by the collar of his blazer. "Don't kick!" gasped +the voice of his son. "I'll get you out." +</p> + +<p> +When he was hauled on to the tow-path, panting and dripping, he turned +round on Lucius in a fury: "What do you mean by it? It was your +fault," he shrieked. "You'll go down! you'll go down!" +</p> + +<p> +Mirrilees, dripping from head to foot, with a slimy weed clinging round +his leg, shouldered his way through the crowd. +</p> + +<p> +"Hold your tongue, you little beast, or I'll pitch you into the river +again," he said. +</p> + +<p> +Other things happened to Mr. Binney that evening, of which he does not +now speak—some of them on his way to the First Trinity boat-house, +some of them when he got there, others as he made his way for the last +time to his rooms in Jesus Lane, and others again before he found +himself in the train on his way to London, having shaken the dust of +Cambridge from his feet for ever. +</p> + +<p> +The next night Third Trinity bumped Trinity Hall and went head of the +river. First Trinity were badly steered by the coxswain who had been +put into Mr. Binney's place, and succumbed to Jesus. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a id="chap17"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XVII +</h3> + +<h4> +MR. BINNEY DRINKS THE HEALTH OF A "BLUE" +</h4> + +<p> +Nine months had passed and the nipping March winds were raising the +dust and numbing noses and finger-tips in London, while March sunshine +was bringing out daffodils and primroses in the country. It was very +cold on the river Thames between Putney and Mortlake, but the sun was +shining brightly, and a little party on the deck of a steamer, which +was making its way with other similar craft to a station near Barnes +Bridge, seemed to be quite unaffected in spirits by the keen east wind, +for it was the morning of the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. The +party on the steamer were all interested in the prospects of one +University, but the two crews were so equal that none of the sporting +critics had ventured to prophesy the winner in clear and unmistakable +terms, and everybody looked forward to seeing one of the best races +that had been rowed for years. +</p> + +<p> +Surely that short but erect figure, standing in the bows, with a First +Trinity scarf showing above the collar of its overcoat and the ruddy +glow of health in its cheeks, can belong to no one but Mr. Peter +Binney, late of Trinity College, Cambridge! And that ample comfortable +form on the seat beside him with a fur-lined cloak and a close-fitting +bonnet, well-secured against the wind, must be that of his true and +loyal wife, Martha Binney, relict of the late Matthew Higginbotham. +Here also are the Reverend Dr. Toller with his wife and daughter, for +Mr. Binney still lives in Russell Square, and is once more a valued and +important official in the doctor's congregation. Here also are Mr. and +Mrs. Jermyn with their son and daughter, the latter attended by the +loquacious Dizzy, while John Jermyn sticks close to the side of Nesta +Toller, rather to the dismay of Mrs. Jermyn, who, charitable woman as +she is, has not taken kindly to that young lady's mother, and is not at +all anxious that this acquaintanceship which has been made under Mr. +Binney's hospitable roof should develop into intimacy. There are other +people on the boat which has been chartered by Mr. Binney for the +entertainment of his friends, but we need not concern ourselves with +them. There is one very important person, however, of those with whom +our story has concerned itself, who is not to be found there. Surely +Lucius, and not Dizzy, entertaining as that gentleman's conversation +is, should be found by the side of Betty Jermyn! And by her side +Lucius certainly would be, if duty and honour did not call him +elsewhere. For Lucius has occupied the bow seat of the Cambridge boat +ever since they went into practice, and is even now, as Mr. Binney's +steamer makes its way up the crowded river, preparing to help launch +the frail shell which all those in whom we are interested confidently +hope will soon bear him to victory. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. and Mrs. Peter Binney are alone for a time in the bows of the +steamer. Let us join them, and listen to their conversation. +</p> + +<p> +"See what an interest the world takes in this historic contest," Mr. +Binney is saying, waving his hand round towards the river dotted with +craft all moving the same way, and the banks lined with a dense, +holiday-making mass. "It makes you proud of being able to call +yourself a 'Varsity man." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, indeed," answers his wife. "And to think of Lucius actually +taking part in it! I feel as proud as anything of the dear boy." +</p> + +<p> +"So do I," says Mr. Binney heartily. "There was a time when I should +have been jealous of him. But that is all over and done with. I've +put such things behind me. Here am I, settled down comfortably with a +devoted and charming wife. I can take life gratefully now as it comes, +and be just as proud of my boy distinguishing himself as if I had done +it myself." +</p> + +<p> +"That's the way to look at it, Peter," says Mrs. Binney. "We made a +mistake in thinking it was necessary for you to go to Cambridge in +order to keep young. It's love that keeps the heart young, and so +we've found, haven't we?" +</p> + +<p> +"Indeed we have, Martha," says Mr. Binney. "Ah! Shall I ever forget +what you did for me in that dark time of illness and remorse? Shall I +ever forget reaching home that morning, racked with anguish at the +thought of the ingratitude I had displayed towards my noble-hearted +son, and the remembrance of the awful punishment I had received for my +rash folly? How I sat indoors brooding over the past, feeling wretched +and miserable, without hope or comfort. How the next day I was too ill +to get up, and by night time was mercifully beyond the reach of my +remorseful thoughts, because of the severe attack of pneumonia, which +the exposure and distress I had gone through had brought on. How I lay +for days, tossing and burning on a couch of misery, and woke at last to +find your cool hand stilling the throbbing of my burning brain, and +your angel voice falling in words of balm on my distressed and fevered +spirit. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, dear," says his wife as Mr. Binney pauses for breath, "and then +you soon got better, didn't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Shall I ever forget," pursues Mr. Binney more energetically than ever, +"how, when I came again to the realisation of all the many follies I +had committed, you soothed and consoled me, how you brought my boy to +me, and neither of you would listen to my broken cries of repentance, +but gave me calves' foot jelly and grapes instead, and insisted upon +carrying on a cheerful conversation? How you brought me the news of my +success in the Little-go, which was greater than I deserved, but less +than I expected; and finally, Martha, how you made me the happy man I +am to-day by promising to become mine when I had sufficiently +recovered, on the condition that I should leave Cambridge and settle +down once more to my business." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, dear, and now we're all comfortable and happy," says Mrs. Binney. +"I made mistakes too, Peter, as well as you, but they're all over now. +And——" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Mrs. Binney," interrupts a well-known voice, "this is something +like, eh? I don't know whether you know that if you've got any +microbes or things of that sort in your system a wind like this blows +'em all away." +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't know it, Mr. Stubbs," says Mrs. Binney, with a pleasant +smile. "But I have no doubt the wind is a very good thing if only it +wouldn't blow all one's hair about one's face so?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, dear lady!" says Dizzy, "you may consider yourself lucky you've +got any hair <i>to</i> be blown about. Now look at the top of <i>my</i> old +pepper-box. I haven't had to use a comb for a year, and I shall soon +be able to part my hair with a towel. You wouldn't like to be like +that, would you?" +</p> + +<p> +"No," says Mrs. Binney. "But you are very young to be going so bald, +Mr. Stubbs. What do you attribute it to?" +</p> + +<p> +It appears that Dizzy attributes his growing baldness to hard work and +care combined, but just as he is explaining this to the sympathetic +Mrs. Binney the steamer shuts off steam and is turned and backed with a +good deal of commotion into her berth just by Barnes Bridge. +</p> + +<p> +There is another hour to wait, but the time goes by somehow. The party +stamp about the deck and huddle themselves up in coats and cloaks to +keep themselves warm, and by-and-bye a muffled roar from a mile away +down the river, warns them that the boats are drawing near. The roar +deepens and increases, and by-and-bye, leaning over the rail of the +steamer, they can see the rhythmic flash of oars in the sunshine, and +nearer and nearer come the two boats, with the Umpire's launch fussing +along just behind them, and the four steamers which follow the race in +the background, the Cambridge steamer—<i>absit omen!</i>—some way behind +the rest. Now they are alongside, and a mighty cheer goes up from all +the throats in Mr. Binney's steamer as they pass, and Cambridge is seen +to be leading by half a length. Just here Oxford makes a spurt, and +creeps up level. Cambridge answers it, and on they go under Barnes +Bridge, fighting every inch of the way, as they have done ever since +the starting gun sent them off like greyhounds from the leash, four +miles down the river at Putney. +</p> + +<p> +Our party spends five minutes of breathless expectation, after boats +and following steamers have passed out of sight, and then another +cheer, louder than the first, goes up as the light blue flag slowly +unfurls itself from the flag-staff at the finish of the course, and the +dark blue is run up underneath it. Then mutually congratulating one +another with every expression of delight and fulfilled expectation, our +party steam away down the river, very well pleased with their +afternoon's amusement. +</p> + +<p><br /></p> + +<p> +On the night of the boat race Lucius dined with the crews; but while he +was by no means a drag on the hilarity of the proceedings, and may be +said on the whole to have enjoyed himself, he often found himself +wishing that he was at home in Russell Square, where Betty was. He had +declined the invitation he had received to the "Blue Monday" dinner, as +Mr. Binney had announced his intention of exercising his hospitality on +that evening in honour of the distinction Lucius had gained in rowing +in the winning University crew. The company was the same as that which +had graced Mr. Binney's board in the Easter vacation a year before, +with the exception of Miss Tupper, who had not entered the house since +Mrs. Higginbotham had taken her place there, and with the addition of +Mrs. Jermyn, Betty, and John. The Reverend Julius Jermyn had returned +to his parish at Norfolk directly after the boat race on the previous +Saturday. The Tollers would not have been there had not Mrs. Toller +practically asked herself. She was sweetness itself in her intercourse +with Mrs. Binney, but although her claws were sheathed they were not +cut, and were likely to spring out at a moment's warning if she were +offended, and Mrs. Binney had wisely given in at once, and warmly +proffered the invitation which was being fished for. Mrs. Toller could +not come without her husband, and Nesta had been asked in order to fill +up. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Binney took in Mrs. Jermyn. It was known that Mrs. Toller would +resent this, but she was placed on her host's left, having been paired +off with Dizzy, to whom she had taken a great fancy, and smiled sweetly +as she took her seat after the Doctor's extempore grace. Lucius was +allowed to take in Betty, and sat between her and her mother. Next to +Betty came Dr. Toller on Mrs. Binney's left. On the other side of the +table was John Jermyn, who had been made happy with Nesta Toller, with +Dizzy and Mrs. Toller next to them. The table was decorated with +Lucius's silver cups, standing on an artistically crinkled square of +light blue silk. The menus, adorned with appropriate aquatic emblems +and the arms of the two Universities, had been ordered expressly from +Messrs. Breedon & Co., and were quite in the orthodox Cambridge style. +</p> + +<p> +"Very pretty," said Mrs. Toller, examining hers when she had settled +herself. "One might almost imagine oneself transported to Cambridge, +Mr. Stubbs. Quite delightful, is it not?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Dizzy, "although to tell you the truth, I'm getting a bit +tired of Cambridge." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! but I thought young men never got tired of University life," said +Mrs. Toller. "I have always heard that it was so very attractive. I'm +sure you found it so, didn't you, Mr. Binney?" +</p> + +<p> +But Mr. Binney was engaged with Mrs. Jermyn and affected not to have +heard the inquiry. +</p> + +<p> +"It's all very well for a bit," said Dizzy, "but when a fellow gets my +age he wants to settle down and do something." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! come," said Mrs. Toller, "you're not so old as all that, Mr. +Stubbs." +</p> + +<p> +"Not in years perhaps," said Dizzy. "But I assure you that in other +things Methuselah was a babe compared with me. I sometimes sit and +look at fellows amusing themselves, and I say to myself: 'Well, you are +a set o' Jugginses. Call this life! Why, you ought all to be in the +nursery!' However, I've only got one more term and the whole thing +will be over." +</p> + +<p> +"And what are you going to do when you leave the University?" asked +Mrs. Toller. "Are you still thinking of entering the Church?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! bless me, no," said Dizzy. "That's off. My old father got a bit +frightened, when these Kensit Johnnies began bally-ragging all over the +place. He's a far-sighted old fellow. He saw that if I got shoved +into a comfortable living and then they went and disestablished it or +something, I should get left." +</p> + +<p> +"Have you ever turned your attention to the Nonconformist ministry?" +inquired Mrs. Toller. +</p> + +<p> +"No, I can't say I have," replied Dizzy. "Is there much in it?" +</p> + +<p> +"The incomes made by our leading men are superior to anything in the +Establishment," said Mrs. Toller. "Our people have been taught to +give." +</p> + +<p> +"<i>Have</i> they?" said Dizzy, with interest. "Well now, that's worth +knowing. I'll put my old governor on to that. If you hear of a soft +thing going, I shall consider it very kind of you if you'll drop me a +line. One's got to keep one's eyes skinned to pick up a living +now-a-days. We're getting ready for the bar now, to tell you the +truth. My old father was dining with a railway fellow down our way, +and he told him that they spent I forget how many thousands a year on +litigation. My governor's a cute old bird, and he thought it wouldn't +be a bad thing if I could pick up a bit of it, so I've been eating +dinners at Lincoln's Inn for the last year or so, and previous poor +dinners they are too. I don't think I shall take to it much. In fact, +the governor's been dropping hints about diplomacy lately. It seems +he's found out from the papers that the people ain't over and above +pleased with the way things have been carried on by the ambassadors +we've got now, and he thinks there might be a chance there in a few +years' time. I don't much care what it is. I suppose I shall keep +going somehow." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius and Betty were talking quietly together on the other side of the +table. +</p> + +<p> +"Only two more years," Lucius was saying. "Won't it be ripping, Betty, +when we're settled down in a house of our own?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think we shall ever have a better time than we've had for the +last year at Cambridge," said Betty. "And think of another summer term +there together." +</p> + +<p> +Lucius's face lit up. "There's nothing like a summer term at Cambridge +when the girl you're in love with is there," he said. "We'll go on the +Backs in a canoe every fine afternoon. I say, Betty, do you remember +that backwater?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course I do, you silly boy," said Betty. "I haven't forgiven you +yet for getting me to go up it on false pretences. I'll see that you +don't get me there again though." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll take particular good care that I do," said Lucius. "I like that +backwater better than any place in Cambridge. Betty, what shall you do +when I've gone down?" +</p> + +<p> +"I know I shall be very miserable," said Betty, her face falling. "But +don't let us talk about that. We shall have another summer term +together." +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Toller was making himself pleasant to his hostess. He was an +agreeable man when he succeeded in banishing from his mind "the +Problems that confront the Age," and brought himself down to the level +of those who are content to let the Age worry along in its own way +without making too much noise about it. Mrs. Binney, at the head of +her own table, was an attractive figure in a gown of rich black silk, +festooned with hangings of lace, and smiled engagingly at the Doctor's +conversation. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Doctor," she said, in answer to a remark from him, "I feel I am a +very fortunate woman. I have a comfortable house and the best of +husbands. Peter is consideration itself to all my little whims, and I +assure you I have a great many whims. There was a time when I feared +that this happiness would never come to me. You know all about it and +were very kind to me when I thought it my duty to cut myself off from +all these bright prospects. I am thankful that that trouble passed +away and I was not compelled to spend the rest of my life by myself. +There is the closest confidence between me and my husband. He is of a +sanguine disposition, and I think I may say that any weight of +character I may have attained to—and you know, Doctor, I am a weighty +woman in more ways than one—keeps the balance true. There is not a +happier couple in all Bloomsbury than Peter and myself, and you know +that in marrying him I have gained a son, which is a great joy to me, +for I never had a child of my own. Lucius treats me with the greatest +respect and affection, and I could not be fonder of him than if he were +my own. I am as proud as anyone of his success to-day. Cambridge has +not proved an unmixed source of pleasure to me, as you know, but I have +seldom performed a more agreeable duty than when I arranged this light +blue silk on the table this afternoon with my own hands. Anything that +I can do towards making the dear boy's life happy with the sweet girl +he is going to marry I <i>shall</i> do, as if they were my own children, and +consider myself fortunate in being permitted to do." +</p> + +<p> +If Mrs. Binney could speak in such terms of gratitude of the new life +she had entered upon, what words could be too strong for her husband to +use in describing his content in having gained as his helpmate that +most estimable woman. She was the theme on which he was expatiating to +Mrs. Jermyn while the conversations already recorded were going on +around him. +</p> + +<p> +"Nobody knows," Mr. Binney was saying, "what that woman has been to me. +She has stuck by me in sickness and in health, when I was working at +the business to which I was brought up, and when I was trying to do +something that I oughtn't have tried to do. You know all about that, +Elizabeth, so I don't mind mentioning it to you, although it's all over +now. I can't say that I'm altogether sorry to have had the mental +training that University life affords. Nobody can deny that there's a +difference between a man who has been at the University and one who +hasn't. You've had a husband at Oxford and a son at Cambridge and you +know that as well as I do. But still on the whole I acknowledge that +Oxford and Cambridge are for the young fellows. When I saw Lucius +pulling away in such perfect style in that boat on Saturday afternoon I +can tell you it warmed my heart to see it. And Martha feels just the +same as I do about it. She told me so. Nobody knows, Elizabeth, what +a treasure I've found in that woman. And as for Lucius, well, he +didn't take to the idea kindly at first—I don't know that it was to be +expected that he should—but they're as fond of one another as they can +be now, and—and it makes me very happy to see it—very happy." +</p> + +<p> +The conversation became more general after this, and great were the +merriment and goodwill round Mr. Binney's table. +</p> + +<p> +When dinner was over and the servants had left the room, Mr. Binney +rose to his feet. There was an expectant silence and a rapping on the +table from all except Lucius, who knew what was coming and wished it +was well over. +</p> + +<p> +"Ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. Binney, "I rise to perform a very +pleasant duty, a duty which I am proud of having occasion to perform, a +duty which I am sure all the friends I see gathered round me to-night +will join with me heartily in—in performing, a duty which—which I +will now perform. I rise, ladies and gentlemen, to propose the health +of my son Lucius, who rowed with such conspicuous success in the +Cambridge boat last Saturday." (Murmured but heartfelt applause, +rappings on the table, and "Well rowed, Lucy, well rowed," from Dizzy.) +"We have gathered round our table to-night," continued Mr. Binney, +"four members of the University of Cambridge." ("Five, sir, five," +from Dizzy.) Mr. Binney's puzzled eye searched quickly round the table +and lit upon Betty. "Five, of course," he said, "for have we not a +fair representative of the great college of Newnham in the person of +the dear girl whom I hope soon to welcome as a daughter?" (Renewed +applause.) "We have also a distinguished member of another University, +or rather of two Universities, for my friend Dr. Toller is a Bachelor +of Arts of the University of London and a Doctor of Divinity—<i>honoris +causâ</i>—of the University of Joppa, Pa., across the water. And +speaking for the ladies, I am sure there is not one present here +to-night whose sympathies do not go out to the great University to +which I have the honour to belong." (Rappings and subdued acquiescent +murmurs from the ladies with the exception of Mrs. Toller, who thought +Oxford rather more aristocratic.) "I needn't say," pursued Mr. Binney, +"that to become a Blue is to gain the proudest position which Cambridge +can afford, and to become a rowing Blue is perhaps the highest +distinction of all. I have always had occasion to be proud of my son +throughout his school and University career, and I am prouder than ever +of him to-night." (Applause.) "These trophies, ladies and gentlemen, +and this decoration of light blue, are signs of his having +distinguished himself in the highest possible degree in one path of +life—the path which only those who have youth, strength, and health on +their side can hope to tread. In proposing the health of my son +Lucius, I am sure you will join with me in wishing him equal success in +other paths of life in the future, a success which, with the charming +girl who has promised to share it with him, I for one feel confident of +his attaining. Ladies and gentlemen—My son Lucius." +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="finis"> +THE END +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Binney, by Archibald Marshall + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER BINNEY *** + +***** This file should be named 38694-h.htm or 38694-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/6/9/38694/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Peter Binney + A Novel + +Author: Archibald Marshall + +Release Date: January 27, 2012 [EBook #38694] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER BINNEY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +PETER BINNEY + +A NOVEL + + +BY + +ARCHIBALD MARSHALL + + + + +NEW YORK + +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY + +1921 + + + + +PUBLISHED 1921 IN U. S. A. + +BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. + + + + First Printing, September, 1921 + Second Printing, October, 1921 + Third Printing, December, 1921 + Fourth Printing, January, 1922 + + + + PRINTED IN THE USA BY + The Quinn & Boden Company + BOOK MANUFACTURERS + RAHWAY NEW JERSEY + + + + +TO + +E. F. BENSON + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +It is over twenty years since "Peter Binney" was first published in +England, and I should be unwilling to offer it to my American readers +at this time of day without some plea for leniency towards a young +man's book, which contains perhaps more than the average number of +crudities to be found in such beginnings. A few of the crudities I +have been able to soften, but if you begin tampering with early work in +the light of maturer knowledge, you are very apt to rub off the bloom +that attaches to it just because it is early work, written with spirit +and freshness, though with little skill. So I have left "Peter Binney" +much as it was, with most of its imperfections on its head, and I trust +some compensating merits. + +One merit I know it to possess. It presents a picture of the lighter +side of undergraduate life as it was in Oxford and Cambridge, and as it +still exists, in spite of superficial changes; and that is something +that can only be done by a young man, whose memories are still fresh, +and to whom that life is still important enough to make it the basis of +a story. + +New York, July, 1921 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I Mr. Binney Makes Up His Mind + II Mr. Binney Interviews One Tutor, and Engages Another + III Lucius Wins a Year's Respite + IV No Help To Be Gained from Mrs. Higginbotham + V Mr. Binney Arrives in Cambridge + VI Lord Blathgowrie Has Something to Say + VII Mr. Binney Speaks at the Union And Makes a Distinguished Acquaintance + VIII The Newnham Girl + IX Mr. Binney Gives a Dinner and Receives a Rebuff + X "The New Court Chronicle" + XI "Put Him in the Fountain" + XII Lucius Makes One Discovery and Mrs. Toller Another + XIII Mr. Binney Gets into Trouble + XIV Nemesis + XV Lucius Finds a Backwater + XVI Third Trinity Makes a Bump + XVII Mr. Binney Drinks the Health of a "Blue" + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MR. BINNEY MAKES UP HIS MIND + +"I'll do it to-day," said Peter Binney. + +He had been sitting deep in thought ever since he had climbed on to the +omnibus outside his place of business in the Whitechapel Road. As the +vehicle pursued its ponderous way through the crowded streets of the +City, stopping now and again to add to its load of homeward-bound +business men, Mr. Binney sat in his seat, silent and preoccupied, his +eyes on the ground and a thoughtful frown on his face. As it left the +Post Office, full inside and out, and bowled smartly along the broad +asphalted road towards the Viaduct, his face cleared, the light of +determination shone in his eye, and looking up, he said aloud:-- + +"I'll do it to-day." + +His fellow passengers gazed at him in surprise, and a young lady who +sat by his side, heavily fringed and feathered, and laden with a huge +cardboard box, laughed a coarse laugh, and said: + +"That's right, guv'nor, don't you put it off no longer." + +Mr. Binney had not intended to express his determination aloud, and the +notice his remark had drawn annoyed him. As the young lady was +apparently turning over in her mind further witticisms, he decided to +leave the omnibus and walk the rest of the way to his house in Russell +Square. He made his way slowly down the unsteady stairs, and the young +lady said: + +"A good cup o' beef tea's what _you_ want, George, and don't forgit the +'ot-water bottle," and as the omnibus pursued its way, leaving him +walking briskly along the pavement, she leant over the side and called +out, "Git Mariar to put a mustard plaster on yer chest," which made the +people on the omnibus laugh, although Mr. Binney could see no humour in +the remark. + +He had come, however, to such a momentous decision during the last +half-hour that by the time he had gone a dozen steps he had ceased to +feel any irritation at the young lady's pleasantries, and walked +smartly along, his brain all on fire with his mighty purpose. + +Peter Binney was a small man of about forty-five years of age. His +hair was gingery, and his whiskers decidedly red. He looked rather +like a little bantam-cock as he strutted along, and this was a curious +coincidence, for he had made his fortune by selling poultry food. + +Every one has heard of Binney's Food for Poultry. Indeed it would be +quite impossible for anybody who is able to read to be unaware of its +existence, for its fame is blazoned on every hoarding in the United +Kingdom. It was Peter Binney who first conceived the idea of advancing +the cause of art and advertising his wares at the same time. In the +early days, when the future world-famed business was just emerging from +its chrysalis state of a little cornchandler's shop in the +neighbourhood of the East India Docks, he was content to publish a +picture of a simpering young woman in a quilted satin petticoat and +dancing shoes, feeding a number of plethoric hens in a very clean +farmyard. But when the shop became a factory and Mr. Binney's keen +business capacity began to tell, he issued his celebrated series of +"Raphael's Cartoons for the Home," across the sky of each of which ran +the inscription, "Binney's Food for Poultry." After a little time he +published an edition of the "Plays of Shakespeare," in which all the +passages that Mr. Bowdler would have omitted were ingeniously converted +by Mr. Binney into eulogies on his Food for Poultry. Poultry and taste +were alike fed by Mr. Binney, and his business flourished accordingly. +At the age of forty-five he found himself a rich man, with a house in +Russell Square, a family tomb in Kensal Green Cemetery (tenanted at +present only by his wife), and a son who was being educated at Eton. + +But to return to the present time and Mr. Binney's purpose. When he +had let himself into the house in Russell Square, he rang the bell and +inquired of the parlour-maid who answered it if Mr. Lucius was at home. +Hearing that he was not, Mr. Binney seemed somewhat relieved, and went +straight up into his dressing-room, where he put on the coat and +trousers generally reserved for Sunday wear, and exchanged his dark tie +for a brilliant red one. Then he looked at his boots, and hesitated. +They were neat enough, but they had lost the sober brilliance of the +morning. There was a row of similar boots freshly blacked under the +dressing-table, but even these must have wanted something in Mr. +Binney's eyes, for after looking at them thoughtfully he shook his +head, and opening the door stole quietly out and upstairs into a room +above his own. It was rather an untidy room and evidently occupied by +a young man of athletic tastes, to judge by the dumb-bells and Indian +clubs, cricket-bats, guncases and fishing-rods that littered the +corners. There was a row of boots and shoes under the dressing-table +here too, and among them a pair of shining patent leathers. Mr. Binney +made his way across the room on tiptoe, and seizing the boots, trees +and all, retreated with them hurriedly to his own room, where he sat +down and put them on. They were a good deal too big, but an extra pair +of winter socks set that right, and when Mr. Binney had buttoned them +he stood up on a chair and surveyed himself in the glass with +considerable satisfaction. "I must get a pair like that," he said. +Then he went downstairs, and putting on his best hat and gloves, and +taking his best umbrella out of the stand, he left the house. + +Turning to the left, Mr. Binney made his way towards Woburn Square. If +he had looked the other way as he came out of his house he would have +seen his son Lucius coming towards him not fifty yards off. Lucius was +very unlike his father. He was a good-looking boy of about eighteen, +tall and slim, with blue eyes and a pleasant smiling mouth fringed with +a few fair downy hairs, of which he always spoke collectively. He was +very popular among his school-fellows, and was commonly known by the +name of "Lucy." + +"Halloa!" he said to himself as he caught sight of his father coming +down the steps of the parental mansion. "Where's the governor off to, +I wonder! Looks jolly smart, too. S'pose he's going to call on that +old woman. Jove! he's got a pair of shiny boots on. I say, governor, +you're going it! They're a bit too big for you though, my boy. Shall +I give him a hail? Think I won't. He might want me to go and call on +the old tabby with him." + +So Lucius let himself into the house and went upstairs. As he passed +his father's room, the door of which was open, he looked in and saw +that the floor was littered with the component parts of a pair of +boot-trees. "Didn't know the governor went in for those luxuries," he +said to himself. Then a sudden thought struck him; he went in and took +up one of the pieces. "Well, I'm hanged!" he said in a tone of deep +annoyance. "They _are_ mine. And he's actually got on my boots. +There's a piece of nerve for you! There'll be a row when you get home, +young man. I really can't stand that, you know." And Lucius went out +of his father's room very much annoyed. + +We left Mr. Binney making his way towards Woburn Square. He walked on +until he came to a house with a brightly-painted blue door, where he +rang the bell and asked if Mrs. Higginbotham was at home. The maid +treated him with the subdued cordiality of an old acquaintance and led +him straight upstairs to Mrs. Higginbotham's drawing-room, where her +mistress was discovered warming her feet at a bright fire, and reading +the _Christian World_. She was a stout, middle-aged lady, and wore a +dress of rich black silk. The room wore an air of warm, solid comfort. +Its decorations would not have satisfied the late Mr. William Morris, +it is true, but as they completely satisfied Mrs. Higginbotham, that +was not a matter of great importance. + +"Dear me, Mr. Binney, this is very kind of you," said Mrs. +Higginbotham, rising to greet her visitor. + +Mr. Binney shook hands with her and took the chair to which she had +motioned him. He did not speak, but the compressed upper lip and the +thoughtful look with which he regarded Mrs. Higginbotham caused a +slight fluttering in that lady's ample bosom. With a woman's instinct +she immediately knew as surely as if he had already told her what he +had come to say. "He's going to do it to-day," she said to herself, +and true to the tactics of her sex she set herself at once to ward off +the critical moment as long as possible. She plunged into conversation +of the sprightly religious order, for Mrs. Higginbotham was a good +woman and could talk by the hour together of preachers and movements +and causes, in which conversation Mr. Binney was quite capable of +holding his own, for he and Mrs. Higginbotham sat under the same +preacher and held the same theological views. There was another point +in common between them, and while Mrs. Higginbotham is struggling to +maintain a bright and lively conversation, to which Mr. Binney replies +only by terse monosyllables, there will be time to explain what this +was. + +Both Mr. Binney and Mrs. Higginbotham had a soul above their +surroundings. In the case of Mr. Binney this has already been +indicated by the way in which, while conducting his business on the +most approved lines of commercial progress, he essayed to import into +it something better and nobler than the mere pushing of his wares and +the piling up of a fortune. Those cartoons from Raphael had infused a +love of art into many humble homes, and not a few minds had been +enriched by the perusal of Binney's Shakespeare (a play given away with +every sack of his food for poultry), to such an extent that the +deterioration of eyesight brought about by the quality of paper and +print with which those masterpieces were issued was a very small matter +in consideration of the mental enlightenment which had been diffused +throughout the country. + +Mrs. Higginbotham's aspirations were not of so educational a character. +Her literary yearnings were satisfied by the weekly appearance of the +_Family Herald Supplement_, to which event she looked forward regularly +with great pleasure. That excellent periodical never made its +appearance in her drawing-room, although sundry works of fiction from +the lending library round the corner, dealing with the habits and +customs of the aristocracy, did. Mrs. Higginbotham's father had been a +draper in a small way of business, and her husband, beginning life in +her father's shop, by the time he died had become a draper in a very +large way. Wealth and luxury had been Mrs. Higginbotham's lot for many +years, but what she yearned for was the larger, freer life led by those +happy beings of whom she read in her chosen novels. To be able to look +upon a lord without blinking; to be able to look upon lords every day +of your life; to have it said in a newspaper, "I saw Mrs. 'Fluffy' +Higginbotham" (Fluffy had been the term of endearment enjoyed by the +late Mr. Higginbotham) "sitting under the Achilles Statue in a +plum-coloured gown with lettuce-green _revers_;" to have cards of +invitation pouring in, every other one illuminated by a title; to +regard the London season as something more than the time of year when +the days were getting longer and it would soon be time to think about +going to the seaside--comfortable as Mrs. Higginbotham's circumstances +were, her life had been singularly devoid of these delights. + +And this was not all. Mrs. Higginbotham was romantic. She revelled in +a love-story. She adored the Apollo-like heroes of her favourite +fiction with an ungrudging wealth of admiration, and she envied hardly +less the blushing heroines on whom they lavished the stores of their +magnificent affections. Mrs. Higginbotham felt that it ought to be the +lot of every girl to be a blushing heroine at one time of her life. +She felt that she herself had been unjustly deprived of that privilege, +although she had been an attractive girl, and, if she read the +expression in Peter Binney's eyes rightly, was attractive still. The +late Mr. Higginbotham had been a good husband to her, but his actual +proposal had been of the "Here I am--Take me if you like--If you don't +there are plenty that will, and only too glad to get the chance" order. +She _had_ taken him, but he had never satisfied the romantic cravings +of her nature. She, on her part, had been a good wife to him, but so +far as she was aware he had never, from first to last, regarded her as +a heroine, or if he had he had never shown it. + +Would Peter Binney do more? Was it too late to hope that a whiff of +the fragrant breezes of romance might yet blow upon her? Mrs. +Higginbotham scarcely knew. There was a something in the little man +that inclined her to think that he would not be averse to dally in the +Indian summer of a romantic courtship if she made it quite plain to him +that that was what she required; and there was a something, in spite of +his diminutive stature and the byegone forty-five years of his +successful life, in the fire of his eye and in his erect and proud +bearing, that whispered to Mrs. Higginbotham's heart that she might, by +guarding the sensation with extreme care, bring herself to regard him +as a very good substitute for the youthful adorer who it was almost too +much to hope would come forward at this time of day. + +While these questions passed through her mind, Mrs. Higginbotham went +on talking, and Mr. Binney, answering her without knowing in the least +what she was talking about, mentally braced himself up for the proposal +he was about to make. At last he broke into the middle of one of Mrs. +Higginbotham's sentences, and said in a firm and resolute voice, "Mrs. +Higginbotham, ma'am." + +Mrs. Higginbotham saw that the time had come, and gave up the struggle. + +"Yes, Mr. Binney?" she said in as cool a tone as she could muster. + +"I am not so young as I was, ma'am," said Mr. Binney. + +"We are none of us that," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "At least not people +at our time of life." + +"You have no reason to complain, ma'am," said Mr. Binney gallantly. + +"My heart is young," said Mrs. Higginbotham, greatly pleased at the +compliment, "and if I am not very much mistaken, yours is also." + +"I hope it is," said Mr. Binney, greatly pleased in his turn; "and on +that account I have a proposal to make to you, ma'am, which I hope you +will consider favourably." + +"I'm sure I shall do that, whatever it is," said Mrs. Higginbotham +comfortably. + +"I hope so," said Mr. Binney again. "The fact is, ma'am, that I have +long regarded you with feelings of interest, which have in the course +of time developed into feelings of affection. I can scarcely hope that +those feelings are returned, but I should wish to ask, ma'am, if there +is any chance in the near or distant future that they might be." + +"Oh, Mr. Binney!" exclaimed Mrs. Higginbotham with a lively +recollection of the heroines of fiction. "This is so sudden." + +"It is, ma'am," said Mr. Binney. "I am aware of that. This sort of +thing _must_ be sudden at some time or another, if it is to result in +bus--I mean if anything is to come of it. I don't wish to press you +for an answer yet. I merely wish to lay my ideas before you. I might +say that I wish to marry again in order to obtain those advantages +which--er--which _come_ from marrying again. I might say that I want +an agreeable companion to sit at the head of my table, to entertain me +with her society in my leisure hours, and to act in the capacity of +mother to my only son. I do want that, but that is not all. I have +worked hard all my life, ma'am, and am now a comparatively rich man. +But I have had very little pleasure in my life. I married my first +wife to please _her_. I want to marry my second to please _myself_. +And I want above all to impart into the affair some of +that--er--_glamour_, which, in my opinion, should envelop all +courtship. I therefore come to you, ma'am, an agreeable and charming +woman, and ask you, not to accept me as a man of good position able to +offer you a comfortable home, which I am aware you have already, but as +a man who, although no longer young, is younger than a good many +people, and who loves you for yourself alone, and would like to take an +opportunity of proving it." + +Could Mrs. Higginbotham believe her ears? If Peter Binney had asked +her to marry him in the way he had suggested, and scouted, she would +have accepted him with a sigh for lost illusions now no longer tenable. +But it really seemed as if that romance for which the poor lady had so +longed was going to be opened up for her, and an ardent swain, in the +person of Peter Binney, Manufacturer of Poultry Food, was ready to +throw himself at her feet and plead for her favour. Mrs. Higginbotham +could scarcely yet grasp the happiness that seemed to be dawning on her +horizon. + +"Do you really love me for myself, Mr. Binney?" she asked with +faltering lips. + +"Say Peter," corrected Mr. Binney. + +"Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham submissively, with a delicious thrill. + +"Yes, I do," said that gentleman. "But I don't want you to accept me +in a hurry, you know," he added hastily. "I want you to try me, to +prove me, to see what I'm made of." He slapped his little breast with +a determined air, and looked round the room as if in search of some +object by means of which he might be proved on the spot. + +Mrs. Higginbotham might have replied that she knew him tolerably well +already, having met him with some frequency for the last twenty years. +But his attitude caused her such a degree of pleasure that she was by +no means prepared to spoil the sensation by reminding him of that fact. +At the same time she was a little nervous and flurried. She had all +the will in the world to prove him, but she didn't quite know how to +set about it. If there had been a crusade handy she might have sent +him off to that, but she could think of no nineteenth century +substitute on the spur of the moment. Mr. Binney had been a Volunteer +in his youth, as he had often told her, but he was one no longer, so +she could not set him to watch his accoutrements all night in a church. +Besides, Mr. Binney went to chapel, and the minister wouldn't have +liked it. She didn't really quite know what he did want, but +fortunately Mr. Binney himself came to the rescue and made himself a +little clearer. + +"Now, Mrs. Higginbotham," he began. "By-the-bye, may I call you +Martha?" + +"Yes, do," said Mrs. Higginbotham. + +"Now, my dear Martha," began Mr. Binney again, "what you have got to do +is to tell me what in your opinion the behaviour of an ideal lover +should be, and what _I_ have got to do is to endeavour to the best of +my ability to act up to your opinion." + +"Well, Peter," began Mrs. Higginbotham, "I must confess that I have +always wished that I had had in my youth a devoted lover who should be +something of a hero." + +"Quite so, quite so," assented Mr. Binney with an energetic nod. "I +shall do my best to be that, my very best." + +"One," continued Mrs. Higginbotham, "whom I could admire +for--er--manliness and--er--light-heartedness, and--er--beauty, both of +form and feature." + +"Exactly so," nodded her wooer. + +"One who would regard me as the most beautiful--er--female in the +world; not that I should be that, of course, but I should like him to +think so." + +"Of course, of course," said Mr. Binney. "Quite natural." + +"And who would try to make little opportunities of meeting me, and +being where I was." + +"Exactly," said Mr. Binney, who had been admitted into Mrs. +Higginbotham's house any time these last twenty years whenever he liked +to present himself. + +"Whose heart would beat quicker when he _did_ see me, and who would be +quite rewarded for any trouble he might have taken over the matter _by_ +seeing me." + +"I quite see, ma'am, I quite see," said Mr. Binney. "The truth of it +is, you want to renew your youth, I take it. Not that it requires much +renewing," he added gallantly. + +"Oh, Peter!" exclaimed Mrs. Higginbotham coyly. + +"And I want to renew _my_ youth, Martha," continued Mr. Binney with +some fervour. "I've worked very hard ever since I was a boy, as you +know, and I never had the fun that I should like to have had, or that +the young fellows I see about me now have--my son, for instance." + +"Dear boy," murmured Mrs. Higginbotham. + +"Dear boy, certainly," acquiesced Mr. Binney, "and _lucky_ boy, too, +Martha. Look what I've done for that boy. I've sent him to Eton, +where _I_ never had a chance of going, or anywhere like it. Why, +Martha, life is one continuous round of pleasure at Eton. And now he +is going to Cambridge. _There's_ a place for you! Why, I assure you, +you could hardly believe the fun that young fellows have at a place +like Cambridge." + +"Yes, I can. I've read books about it," said Mrs. Higginbotham, "and I +had a nephew there once who used to tell me things. Ah, Mr. Binney, if +I were only what I used to be twenty years ago, and you were at +Cambridge!" + +"Pooh, Martha," said Mr. Binney. "You weren't half so attractive as +you are now, I'll be bound. And as for me, though I _am_ forty-five, +I'm as active as ever and could hold up my head with the best of them." + +"I know you could, Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham. + +"Now, Martha, I've got something in my mind," said Mr. Binney. "It's +been there for some time, but I haven't liked to mention it to you +because I was afraid--well, I didn't know how you might take it. But +really, you've taken what I _have_ said in such a way as--as to be +extremely gratifying to me, and upon my word I don't believe you'll +think my idea so very absurd after all." + +Mrs. Higginbotham looked at him with deep interest depicted in her face. + +Mr. Binney squared himself and sat up in his chair. "Lucius is going +to Cambridge in October," he said. "Now what do you say to my going +with him?" + +Mrs. Higginbotham's look of interest gradually brightened into one of +delighted agreement. "Oh, Peter," she said, "if you only could! Isn't +it too late?" + +"Not a bit," said Mr. Binney. "There's no limit of age. I found that +out long ago. I could go up there and be treated in all respects as if +I was five-and-twenty years younger than I am. And do you know, +Martha," added the little man confidentially, "such is my freshness of +mind that I believe in time I should come to believe that I _was_ +five-and-twenty years younger." + +Mrs. Higginbotham looked at him in speechless admiration. "It would be +lovely," she said. "What an interest I should take in your doings, +Peter!" + +This speech was as a spark to the tinder of Mr. Binney's inclinations. +"If you think about it like that, Martha, I'll do it," he cried +delightedly. "And now I must be getting home. I'll have a talk to +Lucius about it to-night, and come and tell you what I have decided +to-morrow." + +Mr. Binney took a tender farewell of Mrs. Higginbotham, and left her to +spend the evening in roseate dreams of returning youth and a wider +horizon than that visible from her windows in Woburn Square. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MR. BINNEY INTERVIEWS ONE TUTOR AND ENGAGES ANOTHER + +Mr. Binney and his son sat over their wine that evening in the +seclusion of the dining-room in Russell Square. Mr. Binney had been +somewhat silent during dinner, thinking over the disclosure he was +about to make. Somehow, now that it came to the point, he felt a +certain diffidence in mentioning it. Lucius also had something to say, +but waited until the servants were out of the room. + +"I say, father," he said, when they were left alone, "I've ordered a +new pair of patent leather boots from Peal's, and asked them to send +the bill in to you." + +Mr. Binney, immersed in his thoughts, had forgotten the occurrence of +the afternoon, or he would not have rushed with such haste to his own +destruction. "Bill into me, Lucius?" he exclaimed angrily. "What do +you mean? You've got your own allowance, and a very handsome one it +is. I'm not going to pay your bills for you besides. If it comes into +me I shall tear it up." + +"You've got your own boots," retorted Lucius, "and very handsome ones +they are. If you take a fancy to mine I don't mind you wearing them a +bit, only I haven't got enough for us both, so I thought you wouldn't +mind my getting another pair, as I can't do without." + +"H'm! Ah! yes!" said Mr. Binney, a trifle confused. "No, I don't mind +really, my boy, though I don't think there are many fathers who would +take it like that." + +"There aren't many fathers who would take their sons' boots," said +Lucius. "By the way, father, talking about allowances, what allowance +are you going to make me at Cambridge?" + +"Ah, Cambridge!" echoed Mr. Binney, as if that ancient seat of learning +had just been brought to his notice for the first time. "Yes, we must +talk about Cambridge." + +"I should like to have it settled before I go back to Eton for my last +half, if you don't mind," said Lucius. "A lot of my friends are going +up, and we shall be sure to be talking over it a good deal. I should +like to know what I shall be able to do and what I shan't." + +"You ought to think yourself very lucky to be going to Cambridge at +all," said Mr. Binney with a shake of the head. "I never had the +chance of going to Cambridge when I was a young fellow." + +"Oh, I daresay it's a jolly enough place," said Lucius, "although I +shall be sorry to leave Eton. Still, it isn't all fun, you know, +father. There's a certain amount of work to be done." + +"Work! Of course there is," said Mr. Binney. "But _what_ work! Think +of being able to carry on your education till you're twenty-two or +thereabouts. It's a grand thing, education. I never had any myself, +at least not what _you_ would call education, although I flatter myself +I know as much as most people." + +"Oh, yes, father," said Lucius. "Why, bless me, you've edited the text +of Shakespeare." + +"H'm, yes," said Mr. Binney, on whom a certain amount of adverse +comment had bred a measure of distrust in this feat. He took a gulp of +port. "We've always been friends, my boy, you and I, haven't we?" he +continued rather nervously. + +"Friends, father?" said Lucius. "Why, of course. I should think so." + +"You might, perhaps, almost say that we are more like brothers than +father and son," pursued Mr. Binney. + +"I don't know that I should go quite so far as that," said Lucius. +"But we always get on very well together, don't we?" + +"Yes, that is what I meant," said Mr. Binney. "Now I've got an idea, +which may be a little unusual." ("Not at all," murmured Lucius +politely.) "But I hope you'll fall in with it. At least when I say, I +hope, it doesn't matter a fig whether you do or not. I'm not going to +be dictated to by my son, though he has been to a public school and I +haven't. Who sent him there?" + +"Why, you did, of course, father," said Lucius. "I don't want to +dictate to you. What is your idea? That I shall go into the business +when I come down from Cambridge?" + +"That you'll do, of course," said Mr. Binney. "I hope you know on +which side your bread's buttered, and who buttered it for you. No, my +idea is about myself. I have worked very hard until now, but I haven't +had the time for self-improvement that I should have liked. Now, what +I propose to do is to take three years holiday off business and go up +to Cambridge with you in October. What do you think of that?" + +What Lucius thought of it might have been accurately gathered from the +length of his face. All power of speech seemed to have left him. He +could only sit with open mouth staring at his father, and this +demeanour instantly set up the comb of that peppery little bantam. + +"Well, well, what have you got to say? Why don't you speak?" he cried, +with some heat. + +Suddenly Lucius lay back in his chair, and gave vent to a loud, but +entirely mirthless, peal of laughter. "That's a good joke, father," he +said. "Gad! you _are_ a ripper. Won't the fellows laugh when I tell +'em?" + +This behaviour seemed to have a very ill effect on the circulation of +Mr. Binney's blood, which flew into his head to such an extent that his +face got as red as a tomato. + +"What do you mean, sir?" he cried angrily. "It isn't a joke at all. +Why should the fellows laugh, I should like to know? I tell you what +it is, sir, you're ashamed of your father, you ungrateful young snob. +Where would you have been, I should like to know, if I hadn't made my +fortune and sacrificed myself to give you a good education? Sweeping a +shop, I dare say, or a clerk on ten shillings a week. That's what you +would have been, my fine fellow, and a good deal too good for you, too, +you idle young----" + +"Steady on, father," interposed Lucius, now quite serious again. "I'm +not ashamed of you, you know that quite well--there's nothing to be +ashamed of--but I didn't think you could mean it, really. You can't +mean it, you know, why it's ridic--it's out of the question." + +"_Why_ is it out of the question, sir?" asked Mr. Binney. "_Why_ is it +out of the question?" + +"Well," said Lucius, "look what a precious pair of fools we shall look." + +"_You_ may, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I dare say you will. I can't help +your looking anything you please. But I flatter myself there's nothing +particularly foolish looking about me, is there? _Is_ there, I say?" + +"Oh, no, nothing at all," Lucius made haste to reply, "but I should +think there would be if you went up to Cambridge as an +undergraduate--something precious foolish. I suppose you mean to take +a house there, though, or something, and enter at some small college +where they won't worry you." + +"I intend to do nothing of the sort, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I shall +enter myself at Trinity. It is, I believe, the best college at +Cambridge. You chose it yourself. And I have no intention of taking a +house. I shall live in the college, and comport myself in the same way +as the steady young men with whom I, and you, too, I hope, expect to +associate." + +"Oh, Lord!" groaned Lucius. "Are we to go about together as steady +young men? Well, you can't get into Trinity, you know, that's one +comfort. The entrance examination is over and you couldn't pass it if +it wasn't." + +"Couldn't pass it, sir! You little know either your father's ability +or determination. And it is not over. There is another in October, +for which I shall present myself." + +"You'll have your work cut out for you to get ready for it. I suppose +you'll go to school for a term. I should go to Johnson's at Margate if +I were you, where you sent me--you see you're just over age for a +public school--they'll take you as a parlour-boarder, and I should +think you might get the good-conduct prize if you're careful." + +"That's right, sir," said Peter bitterly. "Pour scorn on your own +father, who has given you all the advantages you ever had. Of course, +you're a gentleman. You've been to Eton and you're going to Trinity. +Yet you grudge me having my little bit of education, though I pay for +both." + +"Oh, blow the education, father. Why don't you stew up for London +University, and live comfortably at home?" + +"Because I choose to 'stew up' for Cambridge University, sir, and let +that be an end of the matter. You'll find there will only be one of us +there if you're not precious careful, and it won't be you." + +Poor Lucius went to bed that night with a heavy heart. He had rowed +for one year in the Eton eight, and wore with great satisfaction a +flannel coat of light blue. He had hitherto looked forward with +pleasure to his career at Cambridge, with the hope of wearing another +light blue coat of a slightly different cut and shade of colour in the +course of it. Now a dark cloud had arisen to obscure the happy azure +of his mental horizon. + +"If he's going to be such a fool as to go up," he said to himself as he +undressed, "I'm hanged if _I_ will. I'll go to Oxford instead, +although all the chaps I know best are going to the other shop, and I +shan't like it half as well." + +He broached this proposition to his father the next morning at +breakfast, hoping all the time that he had given up his intention. But +Mr. Binney was more than ever confirmed in it, having spent a happy +night in dreams of glorious youthful feats to be laid at the feet of +the fair Mrs. Higginbotham; and Lucius's idea was received so badly +that he relinquished it at once, and made up his mind ruefully that he +should either have to go to Cambridge with his father as his close +companion, or not go at all. He went back to Eton the next day with +all his pleasure in the coming half spoilt by the dark fate that was +hanging over him, his only consolation being the recollection of the +difficulty of the Trinity entrance examination, which it had taken him +all his time to get through, although his work for the last ten years +had led directly up to it. + +"Of course he can't do the work by October," he said to himself. "He +doesn't know a word of Greek and only about three of Latin." + +And this consolation had to suffice him, for he knew his father well +enough to realise that if he had made up his mind to do this thing, and +it was in him to do it, do it he would. Moreover, on the day he had +left Russell Square for Eton he had seen a letter on the hall-table +addressed in his father's handwriting to the tutor on whose side he +himself was entered at Trinity, and blushed to think of what it +contained. + +Lucius's tutor, who was the most popular in the college, wrote to say +that his own side was full, but that his colleague, Mr. Rimington, +still had a few vacancies. So Peter wrote to Mr. Rimington and +received a reply requesting him to go up to Cambridge for a personal +interview. + +Peter travelled to Cambridge the same evening and put up at the "Bull." +After dinner he went out to make his first acquaintance with a +University town. It was a lovely April evening. The deep violet of +the twilight sky revealed the irregular roofs and towers of the old +buildings. There was a half foreign air about the clean paved streets +with the open rivulets running along the pavements. Peter walked up +King's Parade and viewed with awe the pile of the famous chapel of +King's, past the University Library and the Senate House, and the +modern pretentious facade of Caius College, conceived and executed in +the best Insurance office style of architecture, and into the narrow, +noisy little Trinity Street. The streets were full of men in caps and +gowns, and a few still in flannels and straw hats. Mr. Binney wondered +how these latter could walk along so unconcernedly when they might at +any corner run straight into the arms of a perambulating Proctor. He +was so imbued with the idea of himself as a budding undergraduate that +he half expected to be taken for one, and felt quite nervous when he +did meet a Proctor a little later on, lest he should be asked for his +name and college. He was a little disappointed when that functionary +passed him without comment, but so reverential were his feelings +towards one who held such high office in the University that he could +not refrain from taking off his hat to him, a salute which the Proctor +gravely returned, much to Mr. Binney's gratification. He would perhaps +have been less gratified if he had known that the great man, who was +not accustomed to receiving respectful greetings from middle-aged +gentlemen, took him for a subservient tradesman whose face he happened +to have forgotten. + +When Mr. Binney turned into the open space in front of Trinity College +and passed through the noble gateway into the Great Court, his heart +swelled with pride as he stood and looked round him. The twilight had +deepened into night, and the court lay quiet and spacious under the +stars. Opposite to him stood the hall, its painted windows shining +brightly through the dusk. To its right lay the Master's lodge, which +Mr. Binney had been told was also a royal palace, and in front of it +plashed the fountain underneath its graceful canopy of stone. To his +right was the dark mass of the closed chapel, and all round the court +stretched the long low buildings with their lighted windows and busy +staircases, their modest regularity broken up by the three gate towers, +the hall, the lodge, and the chapel. A little group of chatty dons +came towards him from the combination room, across the sacred grass, +one of them in all the bravery of a scarlet gown, and passed out +through the gate. A porter touched his hat to them and Mr. Binney felt +that he could have done the same with pleasure. Towards the +undergraduates who went to and fro in the court, along the flagged +pathways, his feelings were less reverential, but more curious, for he +hoped some day to be one of them. What a proud thing it would be to +walk on these very stones in a square cap and a blue gown and feel that +one had a share in all the ancient surrounding glories. He walked +slowly across the court, and up the steps of the hall. He stopped to +read the college notices in the glass-covered cases which hang in the +passage between the kitchen and buttery hatches on the one side, and +the carved screen which gives access to the hall itself, through heavy +swing doors, on the other. A crowd of waiters in their shirt-sleeves +were busy between the two clearing away the remains of the feast. Mr. +Binney looked into the hall which was now nearly ready to be shut up +for the night. The massive boards and benches of polished oak ran up +to the dais in which were the two long tables where the dons sit at +their dinner long after the undergraduates have finished and left them +to their grandeur. The pictures of bygone worthies whom their college +delights to honour looked down on him solemnly from the walls. Behind +him was the beautiful screen with the gallery above, from which the +panels are removed on state occasions, when a bright array of fair +visitors looks down on the "animals feeding." The lights were going +out now, and the high-pitched roof with its many rafters was fading +into dimness. Mr. Binney turned with a sigh and went out, while a +servant locked the door and left the great hall to its solitude, with +the moonlight streaming in through the blazoned windows and the wakeful +eyes of the departed worthies watching through the night. + +The next morning Mr. Binney called on Mr. Rimington. He had to sit for +a quarter of an hour in the Tutor's ante-room, where half-a-dozen +undergraduates were awaiting their turn for admittance, looking over +the bound volumes of _Punch_ which were laid on the table for their +amusement. Two of them were talking, and Mr. Binney listened with open +ears to their conversation which was "shoppy" in the extreme, and all +the more interesting to him on that account. His appearance caused no +surprise, for fathers do sometimes visit their son's Tutors, but Mr. +Binney thought that every one present would know what he had come for, +and felt a little shy. + +He was shown presently into the inner room, a handsome one with a +beautiful ceiling, and was received very kindly by Mr. Rimington, who, +however, seemed a little nervous. + +"I don't know, Mr. Binney," he said, with some hesitation, "whether I +quite understood your letter." (Here he took Mr. Binney's application +from an orderly little pile on his desk.) "It seemed to mean that you +wished to enter yourself as an undergraduate of the college." + +Mr. Binney sat on a chair before the Tutor fumbling his hat between his +knees. "Certainly, sir," he said, "that is what I meant." + +"There is an undergraduate of your name already entered, I believe, on +Mr. Segrave's side?" + +"Yes, my boy Lucius. He passed the certificate examination last month." + +"Quite so. We are very glad to have him here. We hope he may row in +the boat and help us to beat Oxford." + +Mr. Binney was surprised to find a don taking an interest in such a +frivolous affair as a boat-race, but it put him a little more at his +ease. + +"There is nothing to prevent a man of my age entering at the +University, I suppose?" he inquired. + +"No," said Mr. Rimington with some hesitation, "not from our point of +view. But have you thought what it means, Mr. Binney? It is a +little--er--unusual for father and son to be undergraduate members of +the same college at the same time. Our rules are not at all irksome +for a young man--in fact, some people think we allow too much freedom, +although we find that we get on better by not drawing the rein so tight +as they do at some other colleges--but such as they are we could not +relax them, and in your case they might very well prove to be irksome." + +"Not at all," said Mr. Binney, "not at all. I am prepared to take the +rough with the smooth, and I can keep rules, if they are sensible +rules, as well as the young fellows." + +Mr. Rimington laughed nervously. "May I ask your reason for wanting to +come up to Cambridge so--so late in life?" he asked. + +"I have a passion for education, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I left school +at the age of fourteen, and have worked hard at my business ever since. +But money-making isn't the sole interest in life--besides I have got as +much money as I want. I wish to regain some of the lost opportunities +of youth." + +"Have you kept up your classical studies at all since you left school?" +asked the Tutor. + +"I never learnt any classics, sir," answered Mr. Binney airily; "that +has all to come. They didn't consider that Latin and Greek prepared us +for the business of life when I was a boy." + +"Oh! then I am afraid it is not of the slightest use your attempting to +enter for our examination," said the Tutor, with a visible shade of +relief overspreading his face, "it would take you years to come up to +the standard we require." + +"That is _my_ affair, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I shall not only attempt +it, I shall succeed. I have ability and determination." + +Mr. Rimington looked annoyed. "I think you will find you are +mistaken," he said. "However, as you say, that is your affair and not +mine. But, apart from that, I am not sure, Mr. Binney--I speak quite +openly--that it is the kindest course you could take, as far as your +son is concerned, to enter at the same college. He comes to us with a +very good character, and we hope he will do us credit. But it is +likely to go against him--I mean it will hardly be giving him a fair +chance with the other men of the college to be constantly under your +supervision. A University education, you know, Mr. Binney, is a +valuable training for a young man, because he begins to learn to stand +alone, while he is not left entirely alone. Your son would lose that +advantage, whatever else he might gain, if you were to be constantly +with him." + +Mr. Binney straightened himself up. Mr. Rimington's opposition roused +his fighting business instincts, which prompted him to take every +opportunity of gaining an advantage. "That again is a matter for me to +decide, sir," he said. "Lucius and I are very good friends and +understand one another thoroughly. I have given him advantages of +education that I never had, but when I put my foot down he has to obey. +He knows that by this time. We will leave him out of the question, if +you please." + +Mr. Rimington again looked annoyed. + +"If you are determined to come up for entrance to this college," he +said, "and succeed in passing the necessary test, which, I warn you, +will be a harder matter than you imagine, you would find yourself +compelled to associate with men of very immature views, Mr. Binney." + +"I am not afraid of that," said Mr. Binney. "In fact I shall enjoy it. +I have preserved my youth and can take the young fellows on their own +ground and beat 'em." + +Mr. Rimington passed his hand over his mouth. "Then I had better give +you the necessary papers," he said. "You must send us a certificate of +good conduct, signed by a clergyman who has known you for three years." + +"My pastor, the celebrated Dr. Toller, under whose ministrations I have +sat for the last twenty years would do, I suppose," said Mr. Binney. +"I am a Baptist." + +"Yes, certainly," said the Tutor. "Then there is the certificate of +birth. And this paper will tell you all about the subjects for +examination. I should advise you to engage a private coach. You are +too late, of course, for the first examination, but----" + +"There is another in October," interrupted Mr. Binney. "I know. I +shall present myself for that." + +"Then I will wish you good-morning, Mr. Binney," said the Tutor. "You +will excuse me, but I have a good many pupils to see." Mr. Rimington +summoned up his usual amiable smile and took leave of Mr. Binney with a +warm grasp of the hand; and Mr. Binney went out through the ante-room, +where the waiting crowd had swelled to unusual proportions, and +clattered down the oak staircase into the court, hugging his precious +sheaf of papers. + +In the Combination Room, that evening, Mr. Rimington and Mr. Segrave +discussed Mr. Binney over their wine. + +"I did my best to dissuade him," said Mr. Rimington. "It is very hard +lines on the boy." + +"He is a nice boy," said the other. "Wargrave"--this was Lucius's +house-master at Eton--"says he is one of the best boys he has in his +house; not at all brilliant, but of excellent character and a +first-rate oar--just the sort of freshman we want, as we can't expect +them all to be scholars. I'm afraid it will spoil his life here if his +father insists upon inflicting himself on us. What sort of a man is +he?" + +Mr. Rimington laughed. He would have liked to say, "Just a cocky +little tradesman," but he was a charitable man. "If I were the boy," +he said, "I would rather have him in London than at Cambridge. But I +don't think we shall see him at Cambridge. He left school thirty years +ago and has never learnt either Latin or Greek, or indeed anything that +we want, excepting, perhaps, arithmetic, and we don't want much of +that. Yet he expects us to admit him in October." + +"Oh, well then, we may set our minds at rest," said Mr. Segrave. "But +it's a curious idea altogether." + +Mr. Binney had got back to Russell Square by that time and was just +then engaged in writing out an advertisement for a resident tutor. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LUCIUS WINS A YEAR'S RESPITE + +A week after Mr. Binney's visit to Cambridge, he wrote the following +letter to his son:-- + + +"MY DEAR Lucius,--Yours of 29th ult. to hand. I note you are getting +on with your work and enjoying yourself. I have now relinquished my +attendance at the office, and have left the management in Mr. Walton's +hands, merely dropping in for an hour or two once a week to see how +things are going. As far as I can see he will carry on the business +well during my three years' absence, and at the end of that time I +shall take the reins again and you will begin work there. If all goes +well I shall take you into partnership a year after that, by which time +you ought to have fully mastered the details. + + +"_Re_ work for Trinity Entrance Examination. + + +"I have started on above, having engaged a private coach. I had 430 +answers to my application. My choice fell on a gentleman named +Minshull, a Peterhouse man who dwells in the vicinity. He took his +degree only last year and expects to enter the Church shortly. He +comes every morning at nine o'clock and we work till one. He lunches +with me, after which we take a walk in the Park or elsewhere, returning +for tea and another two hours' work. Then Minshull leaves me, and +after a light dinner I do preparation for him for another two hours and +then to bed. On Saturday we knock off at one, and I generally take an +outing with Mrs. Higginbotham, who wishes to be kindly remembered to +you. She takes a great interest in my enterprise, and refreshes her +memory and mine during our little jaunts by getting me to repeat to her +without book such things as I have learnt during the week as come +within the limits of the curriculum to which she applied herself during +girlhood. The subjects themselves are hardly such as in my judgment +repay the amount of study necessary to master them. What with the +growing competition in commercial life, and the great influx of +foreigners--Germans and others--it seems to me waste of time to devote +three valuable years of a young man's life in getting up the opinions +of a man like Plato, who lived so many years ago that his ideas are by +no means up-to-date. Or take a poet like Virgil again--if Virgil can +be justly called a poet. Compare his thoughts with those of our own +immortal Shakespeare--the Swan of Avon--or even with Macaulay's _Lays +of Ancient Rome_, if you _must_ have matters of ancient history treated +in poetry. And what is the use of puzzling over the Acts of the +Apostles in the Original Greek, when that book, as well as the rest of +the New Testament, has been so admirably translated in the Revised +Version? What the authorities of our Universities entirely fail to +grasp is that Latin and Greek _are not spoken nowadays_. How much +better young men would be fitted for the business of life if they were +trained to speak and write French and German fluently! This is so +obvious to a man of experience that I seriously thought of writing to +the Chancellor of the University, the Duke of Devonshire, and laying my +views before him, but Minshull dissuaded me, saying that I should be in +a better position to bring to bear any influence I might possess after +I have taken my degree, which is perfectly true. But the truth of it +is there are too many old women at the head of the Universities. What +you want are keen-headed men, men of experience in the world, who would +move with the times, and get Oxford and Cambridge to move with them. I +am so convinced I am right in this opinion, that if it were not for the +cares of business, to which I must return when I have finished with +Cambridge, I should apply for a Trinity fellowship after I have taken +my degree, and try to infuse a little spirit into the counsels of the +college and through it into the University. + +"I must now draw to a close and return to my studies. I feel that they +are beneath my powers, but at the same time I must not grumble at +having to begin at the bottom rung of the ladder. 'Thorough' has +always been my motto and will continue so. No more at present, from +your affectionate father,--PETER BINNEY." + + +Mr. Binney's letters as the time went on became more and more sprightly +in tone. With the cares of business he seemed to have finally laid +aside all the interests commonly felt by gentlemen who have reached +middle age. He relapsed into slang. Minshull, he said, was a "jolly +good sort," only you had to work. It was no good trying to "kid him." +The subjects for examination he now found "beastly stiff," and it was +an "awful sap" getting them up, but he quite expected to have "bowled +them over" by the time the examination was due. He mentioned Mrs. +Higginbotham once or twice as one on whose approval of the course he +was pursuing he greatly relied. + +"Confound that old woman," said Lucius when he read this. "She's +backing him up in all this nonsense. She's a sentimental old donkey. +Well, he can't do it in time, that's one comfort;" and Lucius would +encourage himself by dwelling on this conviction, and then tear up his +father's letters. + +He came up to town for two nights about the end of June on his long +leave. Mr. Binney, of course, was full of his work. He wished to be +treated just like any other youth with the ordeal of an examination +before him, and itched to talk over his chances. But Lucius retired +into his shell whenever Cambridge was mentioned. Mr. Binney, of +course, noticed this and began to get his back up about it. At last he +tackled his son in the most effectual way as they sat together in the +library at Russell Square after dinner. + +"Look here, young man," he said, "you may as well get used to this +idea. You and I are going up to Trinity together, and I want to do the +thing fairly and squarely. I shall put us both on an allowance, and at +present I intend to make them equal. But if you're going to be sulky +about it, they won't be equal, or anything like it. So put that in +your pipe and smoke it." + +"What allowance?" inquired Lucius with some interest. His father had +always refused to come to the point when he had asked him the same +question before. + +"Well, I thought of L300 a year," said Mr. Binney. "Minshull did it on +L200, and did it very well, but, as he says, Trinity is the college +where all the swells go, and if you want to live up to 'em you might +have to spend a bit more. As I say, I want to do the thing well." + +"I don't suppose Minshull knows much about it," said Lucius. "Most of +the chaps I know are going to have about four hundred, and hardly any +of them less than three. You have to be jolly careful on three hundred +a year at Trinity." + +"Ah, well," said Mr. Binney, "I won't let a hundred a year, or even +two, stand in the way, and we'll share alike if you're sensible about +it. But I'm not going to pay you four hundred a year to look down on +your father, so you had better make up your mind how you're going to +behave before October comes." + +Lucius sat silent with a gloomy countenance and his hands in his +pockets. When he was at school the idea of his father accompanying him +to Cambridge as a freshman seemed so absurd that he was sometimes +surprised to find that he was enjoying life much as usual, without +being very much burdened by it. When he was at home and realised how +very much in earnest Mr. Binney was, the dark fate that hung over him +became less remote, and filled him with gloomy forebodings. But youth +is elastic. It seemed almost out of the question that Mr. Binney would +succeed in passing the entrance examination, while Lucius himself was +already admitted a member of Trinity College. The allowance his father +had named seemed to him quite adequate, and he allowed himself to cheer +up a little and inquire after the health of Mrs. Higginbotham. + +Mr. Binney coughed in some little embarrassment. + +"Mrs. Higginbotham has a bad cold," he said, "and is confined to the +house. I hope she will be well enough to accompany me to Lord's for +the Eton and Harrow match, if the state of her bronchial tubes, which +are giving her a lot of trouble just now, permit of it. You will be +able to introduce us to some of your friends and future companions at +Cambridge." + +"I'm very sorry," said Lucius, "but I shan't be there. Henley comes in +the same week." + +"I shall be at Henley as well," said Mr. Binney, "and Mrs. Higginbotham +has kindly consented to accompany me. She takes a great interest in +your rowing career, Lucius, as she does in every other manly sport. +Ah! I hope the day may come when I myself--but we mustn't count our +chickens before they are hatched, must we? With regard to Henley, you +will be able to go about with us, I suppose, and see that----" + +"Very sorry, father," interrupted Lucius hastily, "I shall be rowing +nearly all day long. We're in for the Grand and the Ladies' Plate. +Besides, the captain of the boats is a terrible fellow. If he caught +one of us so much as speaking to a lady he'd cut up very rough." + +"Why is that, pray?" inquired Mr. Binney. + +"Oh, I don't know. They might offer us an ice or something. We have +to be awfully strict, you know, over training." + +"Ah, well, that's a pity. Mrs. Higginbotham would like to meet a few +of the young fellows who will be my companions for the next three +years. She said so. Perhaps you might get one of your cricketing +friends who would be unoccupied to look after us." + +"I'm afraid most of them will have people of their own to look after. +However, if any of them happens to lose his father and mother between +now and Henley, I'll see what can be done." + +"And now I must go to bed," said Mr. Binney, "so as to begin work early +to-morrow morning. I don't want to lose a minute more than I can help. +I'm not getting on terms with Mr. Plato as quickly as I should like. I +shall be able to introduce you to Minshull before you start, Lucius. +He's a good chap, and not a bit stand-offish as you might expect, +considering he's a B.A., and I'm not even a freshman yet. You'll find +him quite easy to get on with." + +Minshull was one of those people in whose eyes a three years' residence +at Oxford or Cambridge is such a glorious thing, that if they have gone +through it themselves they can talk or think of nothing else throughout +their lives. The healthy pleasant life of the average undergraduate is +idealised into a sort of seventh heaven, and a "blue" takes his place +immediately below the archangels and considerably above any mere +mortal. Seniority of residence forms an almost complete bar to social +intercourse with undergraduates of lower standing, and the little code +of etiquette invented to enliven proceedings in the lesser colleges is +as the laws of the Medes and Persians. To be or to have been "a +'Varsity man" was the only thing quite necessary in Minshull's eyes, if +you were to call yourself a gentleman, and he therefore saw nothing +that was not entirely laudable in Mr. Binney's determination to acquire +this hall-mark of superiority, however late in life. While trying to +instil into his pupil the requisite amount of Latin and Greek, he +imparted to him at the same time his own particular point of view in +matters of undergraduate custom, taught him what to admire and what to +avoid, until Mr. Binney was infused with the spirit of a provincial +youth about to enter the gates of the University paradise from his +country grammar school. Mr. Binney had first of all considered a +belated career at Cambridge as an opportunity for mending a defective +education; under the encouragement of Mrs. Higginbotham's yearnings +after vanished delights he had come to look upon it as a means of +gaining some of the prestige of golden youth; influenced by Minshull's +complacent reverence, he had insensibly drifted away from the careless +acquiescence with which Lucius, for instance, regarded his own proposed +residence at the University, and now felt that he should break his +heart if he was prevented from taking his part in the glamorous +delights which his tutor held before his eyes. He made herculean +efforts to get on terms with his examination subjects, and worked +harder than he had ever done in his life before. + +Minshull arrived at nine o'clock the next morning as usual. Mr. +Binney, who had been working since seven and had breakfasted at eight, +had not yet returned from a short constitutional, and Lucius had the +privilege of an interview with his father's tutor. + +Minshull was a tall young man, rather shabbily dressed, with a long +solemn face diversified by little ranges of spots of an eruptive +tendency. He greeted Lucius with some respect, for Lucius was a +potential "blue," and Minshull would have been as incapable of keeping +on his hat in church as of talking without due reverence to a "blue." + +"How's the governor getting on with his work?" asked Lucius with an +abashed snigger. + +"Oh, pretty well," replied Minshull. "He works very hard, but of +course he has to do everything from the beginning." + +"No chance of his getting through, I suppose?" said Lucius. + +"Oh, I don't know," said Minshull. "If he works as hard as he has been +doing so far for the next three months he may just be able to scrape +through in October." + +Lucius began to pace the room. + +"If he gets into Trinity I won't go up, that's flat," he said. + +"What! Not go up to the ''Varsity' when you've got a chance!" +exclaimed Minshull. "My dear fellow, you don't know what you're +talking about. You will regret it all your life if you don't." + +"Look here," said Lucius, "you were at Cambridge, weren't you?" + +"Yes, certainly," said Minshull, slightly offended. "I took my degree +last year." + +"Well, how would you have liked to have your old governor playing the +fool up there at the same college?" + +"I see no reason to suppose that Mr. Binney will play the fool," said +Minshull stiffly. "I have put him up to everything he ought to know. +He won't make mistakes. He is not likely to carry an umbrella with a +cap and gown or anything of that sort." + +"Why shouldn't he carry an umbrella if it rains? Look here, can't you +make certain of his getting pilled for this examination?" + +Minshull looked horrified. "What! and prevent his going up to the +'Varsity when he wants to?" he exclaimed. + +"Or if you can't do that and he's likely to get through, tell him that +you don't think much of Trinity, and get him to go somewhere else." + +"There are plenty of good colleges in Cambridge besides Trinity," said +Minshull, "although Trinity men don't seem to think so. My own +college, for instance, Peterhouse, isn't big, but it is one of the +best, if not _the_ best of the smaller ones." + +"Is it? Well then, get him to go there. Do you mean to say you don't +think it's a beastly shame him wanting to come up and spoil all my time +at Cambridge?" + +"I can't see----" began Minshull, but just then Mr. Binney came in, and +Lucius left them to their labours, with the uncomfortable conviction +that the toils were closing in on him and that there was no help at any +rate to be gained from his father's tutor. + +Henley week came round in due course, but Mrs. Higginbotham, alas, did +not come round with it. Her cold had settled on her lungs and the poor +lady was brought very low. At the time Mr. Binney hoped to have been +paddling her about on the Thames in a Canadian canoe she was surveying +the beauties of Torquay in a bathchair. Mr. Binney had been told by +Minshull that if he really wished to pass the Trinity entrance +examination in October, it was absolutely imperative that he should not +lose a single day's work if he could possibly help it, so Lucius won a +reprieve for that occasion, at least, and as the Eton boys managed to +win the Ladies' Plate and rowed a good race in the semi-final heat for +the Grand Challenge Cup, he spent on the whole a pleasant Henley. +During the first few weeks of his holidays he was training for and +rowing in some of the up-river regattas, and September he spent with +various school-fellows in Scotland, so it was not until just before he +was due at Cambridge that he found himself once more in the house in +Russell Square and the society of his father. Mr. Binney, in the +meantime, fired with a mighty ambition to show his mettle and acquit +himself well in his examination, had retired to an east coast village +with Minshull, and devoted himself strenuously to his books. He had +worked very hard for six months, but a man who has left a cheap +commercial school at the age of fourteen, and that thirty years before, +can hardly expect to do in that time what a public school boy has been +working steadily up to ever since his education began. A month before +the examination, Minshull saw that his pupil had no chance of success, +and told him so one morning as they were walking together by the sea. +Mr. Binney was heart-broken. + +"_No_ chance, Minshull?" he asked plaintively. "I don't mind working +another two hours a day, you know. Isn't there _any_ chance?" + +"I'm afraid not, Mr. Binney," said Minshull. "You have worked very +hard; you couldn't have done better; but you see the work is all new to +you. You might get in at the Hall, perhaps, or if you cared about it I +should think I might have enough influence with the Peterhouse +authorities to----" + +"Never," said Mr. Binney firmly. "Trinity or nowhere. If I make up my +mind to a thing, I stick to it. I shouldn't have made my fortune if I +hadn't." + +"I should advise you, sir, to give up all ideas of attempting the +October examination," said Minshull. "I can assure you you can't +possibly pass it, and if you do very badly it may be prejudicial to +your chances in the future. Take a month's holiday, or you'll knock +yourself up. Then set to work again and be ready for them next spring." + +"I feel you're right," said poor Mr. Binney. "I feel you're right, +Minshull, but it's a sad blow. You'll excuse me if I just walk on +alone for a bit. I shall get over it better." + +Minshull left him, and Mr. Binney spent a very bitter hour by himself. +He had never been beaten before when he had made up his mind to +succeed, and it enraged him to think of the two hundred beardless boys +who would enter Trinity College as freshmen in a month's time, most of +whom had succeeded without any difficulty in doing what he could not do +even with the most strenuous endeavours. Lucius, for instance, had +taken the whole thing very calmly, although he was not a particularly +clever nor a particularly diligent boy. Then his thoughts passed on to +Mrs. Higginbotham--Martha. That was the worst thought of all. He had +written once a week to Mrs. Higginbotham, alluding in an airy way to +his new acquaintances, Plato and Virgil and Euclid, as if he and they +were on the most intimate terms of familiarity. Now he would have to +tell her that their thoughts were too deep for him--for him who had +familiarised all England with the mind of a Shakespeare--and that the +languages by means of which they expressed their thoughts still +presented such a mountain of obstacles to him that it was doubtful if +he would ever succeed in getting over them. Still, the confession +would have to be made, and Mr. Binney, with that directness which +characterised all his actions, determined that it should be made that +very night. "I am very, very sorry, Martha," he wrote, "I have really +done my best. I shouldn't have been worthy of you if I hadn't. I'm +afraid your Peter is a bit of a dunce, although he never thought so +before. Write and say you will not throw me over for it, and I shall +set to work again with renewed earnestness." + +Mrs. Higginbotham, although deeply disappointed, wrote a very kind and +consoling letter from Torquay, where her bronchial tubes, which had +assumed complete mastery over all her actions, still detained her. + +"If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again," she wrote, and +thought she had said a very original thing. "I always found, when I +was a young lady at school, that if I couldn't master my tasks +immediately, the only thing for it was, not to give them up, but to +determine that I _would_ master them in time; and my mistress, Miss +Dolby--now an angel--used frequently to point me out to the parents of +other pupils, and say, 'That child has great determination, and will +undoubtedly make her mark.' I am aware that I have not fulfilled Miss +Dolby's prophecy up to present date, but your triumphs are mine, Peter, +and I trust that we shall both grow famous together." + +Mr. Binney was much encouraged by Mrs. Higginbotham's letter. He took +a holiday and went to Torquay, and by the time Lucius went up to +Cambridge early in October, very much relieved at the idea of at least +one year free from the companionship of his father as a fellow +undergraduate, he had settled down for a hard winter's work in Russell +Square. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NO HELP TO BE GAINED FROM MRS. HIGGINBOTHAM + +Lucius Binney enjoyed his first year at Cambridge exceedingly. He had +been popular at school and he was very much liked at the University. +He did enough work to enable him to avoid friction with the authorities +and passed both parts of his Littlego in his first term. He rowed in +the Trial Eights, but as he was not heavy enough to fill any place but +bow in a University boat, a place which was adequately filled already, +he did not get his Blue. His allowance enabled him to play his part in +the hospitalities of University life with credit, and he showed no +disposition to exceed it. He was made a member of the historic Amateur +Dramatic Club, commonly known as the A.D.C., and played the part of a +maid-servant in the first performances of his year on the most approved +principles of Cambridge dramatic art, with a slim waist, a high colour, +and an unmistakably masculine voice. He would have been one of the +happiest men in the University if he had not been continually haunted +by the thought of his father. + +But for some reason or other Mr. Binney, although he insisted upon +lengthy letters being written to him, giving the fullest possible +account of University matters, expressed no intention of paying him a +visit, as Lucius lived in continual fear of his doing. Perhaps he was +ashamed of his inability to pass the entrance examination after having +made certain of doing so; perhaps he preferred to make his first +appearance amongst Cambridge men as an undergraduate and not as the +guest of an undergraduate. At any rate he left Lucius unmolested +during his first two terms, but his letters became more and more +jubilant as he worked on at his examination subjects, and felt himself +getting nearer the desired goal. + +Lucius had a friend called Dizzy. His name was not really Dizzy, but +it is only fair to state that he had been christened Benjamin. To him +alone, of all his friends, Lucius had disclosed, under a solemn promise +of secrecy, the dark fate that was hanging over him. + +"He'll pass this time, Dizzy, I know he will," said Lucius, after +receiving a more than usually confident letter from his father, who +informed him that Minshull had told him that his Latin prose was, at +last, beginning to show signs of an elementary grasp of the fact that +there was such a thing as Latin grammar. + +"Not he," said Dizzy with complete confidence. "He'll never pass. I +knew an old geezer--no offence to your governor, Lucy--who first took +up Latin when his little boys were seven and eight, under a governess. +First week they were all three about equal. Then the eldest boy began +to forge ahead. In a fortnight the little one left the old man behind, +and after a month the governess said she'd have to go if he didn't do +her more credit. He didn't want that, so he married her, which was +what he'd been after all along, only hadn't liked to say so. They +can't learn things at that time of life, my boy, any more than we can +make a pot of money by winking at a fellow on the Stock Exchange. It's +not in 'em." + +"You don't know my governor," said Lucius, his depression very little +lightened by Dizzy's narrative. "He's been at it for nearly a year +now, grinding like a galley slave. That fellow Minshull must have got +something into his head by this time. And after all the entrance exam +isn't anything very big, is it?" + +"Not to us; we're educated men," said Dizzy, who was a member of +Trinity Hall, where the entrance examination is tempered to the shorn +Trinity candidate. "But it's the devil and all to people like your old +governor who ain't used to that sort of thing. _He_ won't pass, Lucy; +don't you be afraid of it." + +"It's too bad of him wanting to come up, isn't it, Dizzy?" said poor +Lucius, who yearned for sympathy and could only obtain it from this one +particular friend. + +"It _is_ too bad," said Dizzy. "I don't know what governors are coming +to. There's mine wrote to me the other day and said I was disgracing +the family name, just because I turned out those lights in St. Andrew's +Street and got hauled up at the police court for it. I told him I did +it entirely to save the ratepayers' money. He's always talking about +the enormous fiscal burdens he's got to bear, or some such tommy-rot, +and I thought that would please him. But not a bit of it. Governors +never listen to reason. I got eight pages back with a lot more about +the family name. Hang it, it ain't much of a name after all." + +It was not. It was Stubbs. But General Sir Richard Stubbs, V.C., had +done his little best to adorn it in days gone by and saw no great +probability of his son Benjamin doing the same in days to come. + +The account Lucius gave at home of his doings fired Mr. Binney's +imagination. + +"Splendid, my boy, splendid!" cried the little man, when he described +the two bumps which the Third Trinity boat had made in the Lent races. +"I shall go in for rowing myself; best exercise you can have," and Mr. +Binney drew himself up and struck the place where his chest would have +been if he had had one. "Is it likely, do you think, Lucius, that you +and I will row in the same boat?" + +"It's not only unlikely," said Lucius shortly, "it's impossible." + +"Oh, indeed," said Mr. Binney, with a dangerous gleam in his eye. "You +are such a swell I suppose, that nobody else can expect to come near +you." + +"You wouldn't even belong to the same boat-club," said Lucius. "You +ought to know that by this time. Third Trinity is only for Eton and +Westminster men, the rest of the college belongs to First Trinity." + +"I did know it," said Mr. Binney, "but I had forgotten it for the +moment. You needn't take me up so sharp, Lucius. Is First Trinity a +good boat club?" + +"Of course it is," said Lucius. + +"Very well, then, I shall join it, and take up rowing seriously. Have +you spoken at the Union yet?" + +"No, I don't belong to it. I shouldn't speak if I did, and it's no +good belonging to that and the 'Pitt' too." + +"The 'Pitt'! What's the 'Pitt'?" + +"It's a club." + +"Is it the thing to belong to it?" + +"Oh, I don't know. A lot of people do." + +"Ah, well, I must belong to that too." + +"You have to be elected to it. People sometimes get pilled." + +"Well, I should hope there wouldn't be much chance of _my_ getting +pilled, whatever that may mean. I belong to the National Liberal Club. +That ought to be enough for them, oughtn't it?" + +"Quite enough for them, I should think," answered Lucius, who had once +dined at that famous institution with Peter, and been offensively +patronised by one of Mr. Binney's fellow-members, a man old enough to +be his father. + +"I shall join the Union," continued Mr. Binney. "I expect most of my +triumphs will lie there. I am accustomed to addressing large +assemblies. I was nearly elected to the London County Council two +years ago, as you know. That's where I score, you see, being a man of +the world among a lot of boys. I've learnt to do things that they are +only just beginning to think about." + +"Yes. You've made your pile among other things," replied Lucius. +"Most of us haven't learnt to do that yet. We generally begin at the +other end and spend it first." + +"I shan't grudge spending some of it," said Mr. Binney. "I hope to +entertain the young fellows a good deal. Minshull says if you give a +few good breakfasts every term--do the thing well, you know, with +perhaps some fruit and a bottle of claret to come after--you get a +tremendous reputation for hospitality throughout the 'Varsity. Is that +so?" + +"Well, I'm not sure I ever met anybody who drank claret at breakfast. +I did know a fellow who used to drink brandy. He certainly did get a +tremendous reputation throughout the 'Varsity, but it wasn't for +hospitality. He wasn't up there long." + +"H'm. Well, Minshull said he knew a man who went up a bit late, who +had more money to spend than most people, who got into the first set at +Peterhouse through his breakfasts." + +"Did he? Lucky fellow! Well, I should give a few breakfasts if I were +you, father. We shall all think you a tremendous chap." + +"I mean to go one better than that, my boy, and give a little dinner +occasionally, to the _elite_ of the 'Varsity--Blues, and people of that +sort. I daresay you young fellows will only be too pleased to go +outside the ordinary lines once in a way. I suppose there's no rule +against giving dinners, is there?" + +"I never heard of it. It's pretty often broken if there is." + +"I intend to do the thing well, and open a bottle of champagne. I +daresay, now, champagne's a thing that's hardly known at Cambridge." + +"That's what I told my wine merchant last term. He was rather annoyed." + +"I don't object to a little jollification occasionally. I daresay you +and I, Lucius---for you shall do what I do--will become pretty well +known up there by-and-bye." + +"I dare say we shall," said Lucius with a sigh. And, indeed, it did +not seem unlikely. + +Before Lucius went back to Cambridge for the summer term, he made one +last attempt to avert the catastrophe which had now become +imminent--for Minshull had told him that Mr. Binney was now quite +capable of passing the required test. He called on Mrs. Higginbotham, +whose bronchial tubes had by this time become less ostentatious in +their behaviour. + +"Well, Lucius," said that lady, when he was seated opposite to her in +her comfortable drawing-room, "you will soon have your dear father to +look after you at college. It is not many young men who have a father +so ready to share in all their little pleasures." + +"No," said Lucius. "Don't you think you could stop him, Mrs. +Higginbotham, if you tried?" + +"Stop him!" exclaimed Mrs. Higginbotham with raised voice and hands. +"My dear Lucius, do not tell me that you are so selfish as to be +jealous of an excellent father." + +"Jealous!" echoed Lucius. "I don't know what you mean." + +"You _do_ know what I mean, Lucius," said Mrs. Higginbotham severely. +"And you _are_ jealous. I can see it in your face. Here is your dear +father continually talking to me with pride about the things you are +doing at Cambridge, while you are only thinking of yourself, and fear +that you will lose the position you have won when he is there to +compete with you. What a contrast! You should be ashamed of such +feelings, Lucius. I am sure I should be if I were in your place. What +matter if you do have to take a lower place in the estimation of your +young friends, when it is your own father--and _such_ a father--who +will replace you? I do not like to think of such behaviour." + +"He'll only be laughed at, you know," said Lucius. + +"And do you mean to tell me that, as an unworthy revenge for your loss +of prestige, you would actually dare to hold your own father up to +ridicule?" inquired Mrs. Higginbotham. + +"Of course I shouldn't," said Lucius. "I should do my best to prevent +his making a f--I mean becoming notorious." + +"There!" said Mrs. Higginbotham triumphantly. "Now you have +acknowledged your baseness, Lucius. I am thoroughly ashamed of you. +But you will learn that you _cannot_ prevent your father from becoming +notorious. He is _bound_ to take the lead in whatever he takes up, +especially among a lot of boys many years his juniors, and far inferior +in capacity. I am afraid that in addition to your miserable jealousy, +Lucius, there are things you wish to hide in your life at Cambridge, +things that you do not wish your father to know of. I hope, indeed, +that is not so. I should be truly sorry if the innocent life to which +he is looking forward with such pleasure was to be spoiled by the +misbehaviour of one for whom he has done so much." + +"I've got nothing to be ashamed of in my life at Cambridge, Mrs. +Higginbotham," said Lucius. "You don't seem to be any more reasonable +about this silly scheme than my father himself. I had better go, I +think." + +"I think so too," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "And do not come and see me +again, Lucius, until you are in a better frame of mind, and can speak +with more respect to one of your father's oldest friends." + +"I won't come and see you again at all, you silly old fool," said +Lucius; but he waited to say it until he was on the other side of the +door. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MR. BINNEY ARRIVES IN CAMBRIDGE + +Lucius's first May term wore itself out with a burst of glorious summer +weather. The boat races and cricket matches, the dances and college +concerts, the crowds of sisters and cousins, the mayonnaises and iced +cups, and all the other attributes of those ten days of mid-June which +go by the name of the May week, played their accustomed parts in +mitigating the severity of the toil to which Cambridge devotes itself +for the rest of the academic year. + +But to Lucius there was a heavy cloud darkening the vivid blue of the +summer sky. Mr. Binney was to arrive at the end of the term, to +undergo his examination. The days passed with relentless speed, and +one unhappy morning he found himself walking up and down the long +unlovely platform of the Cambridge station, awaiting the train which +was bearing his father rapidly towards the scene of his future +exploits. So far only Mr. Benjamin Stubbs shared with him the +knowledge of the evil fate that was in store for him. But the secret +was bound to come out now, and Lucius wondered whether there was a more +unhappy man in all Cambridge than himself. + +Mr. Binney arrived, accompanied by Minshull, for whom he had taken +rooms at the Hoop, in order that he might have the advantage of his +able tuition up to the very last moment, for he was determined to throw +away no little chance that might add to his prospect of success. Mr. +Binney himself had been allotted rooms in college for the few days +during which the examination lasted. If he was not already a Cambridge +man this was the next best thing to it, and a proud man was Mr. Binney +to find himself the occupant of a garret in the Great Court with a +bedroom which any one of his servants at Russell Square would have +turned up her nose at. They were the rooms of a sizar, and were barely +furnished even for a very poor man's rooms, but the sizar had blossomed +into the Senior Wrangler of that year, and that fact repaid Mr. Binney +in full for any little inconvenience he might have felt at being +deprived of most of the necessities and all the luxuries of life to +which he had been accustomed. + +Lucius accompanied his father to these rooms and left him to himself, +for he was lunching with the captain of his boat. It was the last +night of the races, and Mr. Binney proposed, after spending a busy +afternoon with Minshull over his books, to go down to Ditton Corner and +see the boats. Lucius thanked his lucky stars that he was rowing and +need not present his father to an admiring circle of friends on that +very public occasion. He would have been pleased enough to introduce +him as a father, there or at any other place, if he had come up simply +to pay him a visit, for Lucius was a right-minded boy and showed no +disposition to be ashamed of his somewhat humble origin among his +circle of more or less gilded youth; but to have to say "My father, who +is coming up here next term," and to have to stand by while little Mr. +Binney tried to reduce himself to the level of an inexperienced +schoolboy, as he felt certain he would do, was an ordeal that he did +not feel equal to, and he made up his mind to let the inevitable +catastrophe bring itself about in its own way. He told himself that he +was happy to have averted it for so long, for although some of the dons +knew of Mr. Binney's intention, and his own Tutor had actually talked +to him about it, the secret did not seem to have become public property +among the undergraduates of the college. + +Mr. Binney was delighted with everything he saw. The gay crowd in the +paddock at Ditton Corner, the lines of carriages on one side, and the +flotilla of moored boats under the bank, appealed to him with all the +force of a delightful novelty. The boating men and others on the +tow-path across the river, with the photographers plying their trade +and letting off their amiable witticisms through their megaphones, the +boat crews in their coloured coats, some of them with flowers in their +hats, swinging down to their stations round the bend, gave him great +pleasure. Then, after a pause, filled with the gossip and laughter of +the crowd, when a distant gun was heard, and three minutes afterwards a +second, and a minute after yet another; when the men in the boats under +the bank straightened themselves and said, "They're off"; when a moving +mass of the heads of men running was seen far away under the willows +across the meadows; when little men laden with bundles of coats fled +along the tow-path opposite towards the "Pike and Eel"; when the noise +of the shouting and the springing of rattles drew nearer; when every +head in the crowd was turned towards Ditton Corner, and two boats came +into sight very close to one another, and after them two more, and the +shouting and cheering was taken up by every one around him, Mr. Binney +lost his head with excitement, and yelled with the best of them, +especially for the heroes of Fitzwilliam Hall whom he, for some reason +or other, mistook for a Trinity crew. + +"It's grand, Minshull, it's grand," he said as they made their way home +with the crowd along the river bank and across Midsummer Common. "I +don't wonder at your being proud of Cambridge, Minshull." + +"I'm glad Pothouse made their bump just opposite Ditton," said Minshull +complacently. "Now you see what rowing is like, Mr. Binney." + +"Lucius rowed well," said Mr. Binney. "Didn't you think so?" + +"Yes," said Minshull, who had been a diligent but ineffective La Crosse +and hockey player during his residence at the University, and hardly +knew an oar from a barge pole. "But it seemed to me that he hardly +caught the beginning enough." + +"You had better tell him that," said Mr. Binney with unconscious irony. +"I dare say he'll be glad of any hints he can get." + +Lucius sat in his rooms in Jesus Lane the next afternoon in a very +depressed frame of mind. His father had intimated that he was coming +to tea. Lucius had invited Dizzy to meet him, hoping that his friend's +pleasant flow of conversation would help out the entertainment, and +prevent his own plentiful lack of cheerfulness from becoming too +apparent; but Dizzy had not arrived yet. He devoutly hoped that nobody +else would unexpectedly honour him with his society. But alas! an Eton +friend, one year his junior, who was in for the entrance examination, +took that untoward opportunity of paying him a visit. + +"There's such a rummy little devil up," he said in the course of +conversation, "about sixty years old, with carrotty whiskers. It +oughtn't to be allowed." + +The blow had fallen. Poor Lucius sat silent in untold misery, and just +then in walked Mr. Binney. "My father," said the wretched boy. "Lord +Blathgowrie." + +Lord Blathgowrie shook hands with Mr. Binney without visible +embarrassment, and then, suddenly remembering a pressing engagement, +went out to spread his extraordinary news. + +"A lord!" said little Mr. Binney with great satisfaction. "Well, there +are a good many lords I could buy up. However, that seems a nice young +fellow. I wonder how he got on with his Virgil paper. I must ask him +to-morrow." + +Lucius groaned inwardly. "I shouldn't pal up to chaps like that, if I +were you, father," he said. "I should keep as quiet as I could, or +you'll make yourself and me look jolly ridiculous." + +"Allow me to tell you, sir," said Mr. Binney up in arms at once, "that +no action I choose to take is likely to make either you or myself look +ridiculous. And I object to being made the butt of such observations +from my own son. It isn't the first time it has happened, and in order +that it may be the last, I beg to tell you that it is my intention to +knock ten pounds a year off your very handsome allowance for every +speech of that sort that I am called upon to listen to." + +Lucius groaned again and passed his hand wearily across his brow, but +made no verbal remonstrance to his father's harsh announcement, and +just then the door of the house was heard to slam, and Dizzy tumbled +noisily upstairs and into the room. + +"My father--Mr. Stubbs," said Lucius dejectedly. + +"How do you do, Mr. Binney," said the cheerful Dizzy. "Pleased to meet +you. Lucy--I mean Lucius, told me you were thinking of giving us a +turn up here. Not a bad place, is it? Better than Threadneedle +Street, eh?" + +"I don't know very much about Threadneedle Street, Mr. Stubbs," said +Mr. Binney, a little taken aback by Dizzy's extreme friendliness, "but +this certainly is _not_ a bad place. Indeed it is a very good place. +It is a noble place." + +"How did you get on with your papers?" inquired Dizzy, helping himself +to a large slice of cake. "Pipped 'em all right, I hope." + +"I think I acquitted myself tolerably satisfactorily, thank you," +answered Mr. Binney. "We were examined on the Acts of the Apostles +this afternoon." + +"Rummy old boys, those Apostles," began Dizzy in a vein of reminiscent +anecdote, but Mr. Binney interrupted him. + +"Mr. Stubbs," he said, "I am a man of religious views. I must beg you +not to make light of sacred matters. You'll excuse my making the +stipulation, but----" + +"Oh, not at all," said the unabashed Dizzy ambiguously, "don't mention +it. I was only going to say that it seems a rummy thing--however, +perhaps I'd better not. See the races yesterday?" + +"I did," said Mr. Binney, warming at once. "I never saw anything which +pleased me better. What a thing it is to see a lot of young fellows +going in for such a grand sport as that!" + +"It is," said Dizzy. "I'm a whale on sport. I ain't much of a hand in +a boat myself, but put me on a horse and I'll undertake to----" + +"Tumble off," interpolated Lucius, who was in a state of irritation +verging on desperation. + +"Lucy, you've got a fit of the green-eyed monster," said Dizzy. "You +ride like a bag of potatoes yourself, and you're jealous of those who +can beat you. Don't you pay any attention to him, Mr. Binney. You'll +get to know him by-and-bye. Going to keep a horse up here?" + +"I hadn't thought of it," said Mr. Binney doubtfully. "I rather +thought of devoting myself to rowing." + +"Capital thing," said Dizzy. "I knew a fellow who----" + +Dizzy's anecdote was so little to the point that it may be omitted. In +later life he would probably become one of those old men who interrupt +conversation with the dread opening, "I recollect upon one occasion," +and sail off into interminable pointless reminiscence. But, at +present, his absolute lack of self-consciousness and his flow of +youthful good spirits made him very agreeable company, and when he left +Lucius's rooms half-an-hour later, he had completely captivated Mr. +Binney with his artless prattle. + +"That's a very nice young fellow," said Mr. Binney, when the door had +closed on Dizzy's back. "If all your friends at Trinity are like that, +Lucius----" + +"Stubbs isn't at Trinity," said Lucius, "he's at the Hall." + +"Really!" said Mr. Binney, much surprised, "I thought that Trinity men +never associated on equal terms with men of other colleges." + +"That's one of Minshull's ridiculous ideas, I suppose," said Lucius. +"It doesn't matter what college a fellow is at if he's a good chap, and +there are plenty of good chaps in Cambridge outside Trinity, especially +at the Hall." + +"But I should have expected a little more--what shall I +say?--deference, in a man from another college." + +"Well, then, I'm afraid it's one of those expectations in which you'll +be disappointed if you're really coming up here. Trinity's the best +college in Cambridge--or Oxford either for that matter--but it isn't +the only one, and nobody thinks it is unless it's fellows like +Minshull, who are always running it down, although they would have +given their ears to belong to it themselves." + +"I don't like the tone you take up about Minshull, Lucius," said Mr. +Binney. "Minshull's a very good fellow, although he hasn't had the +advantages that you and I have. I owe him a great deal, and I shan't +forget it. Now I must go and look over the subjects for to-morrow's +papers." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LORD BLATHGOWRIE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY + +Poor Lucius went up to Cambridge for his second year with his allowance +pared down to L360 a year, for, careful as he was, he had not been so +successful as altogether to avoid hurting his father's +susceptibilities; and with him went Mr. Binney, for eighteen months of +hard toil had enabled him to pass the entrance examination, and he was +now duly admitted a pensioner of Trinity. + +Lucius had been allotted rooms in college, while Mr. Binney inhabited +one of the choice mansions in Jesus Lane. He had knocked off ten +pounds from his son's allowance for suggesting a retired situation in +the Trumpington Road. "I am determined to do the thing as well as my +means will permit of," he had said. "If I can secure good rooms in +college next year, I shall do so. Until then I shall take the best +lodgings that are available." + +They parted at the railway station. "I suppose I shall see you some +time to-morrow," said Mr. Binney, when he had collected his luggage and +was just stepping into a fly. + +"I suppose so," said Lucius dejectedly, as he drove away. + +Lucius dined that night in hall, and sat in extreme misery while his +friends aired their humour at his expense, for by this time the news of +Mr. Binney's arrival had become public property. Their chaff was not +ill-humoured, and if matters had stood as they evidently imagined, +Lucius could have borne it. Elderly undergraduates are not altogether +unknown at Cambridge, although they do not often appear at Trinity +College; but they are usually careful to comport themselves with +dignified reticence, and to keep very much in the background. A +University degree is, as a rule, the sole end they have in view in +putting themselves to school again, and they are very far from wishing +to ape the manners and customs of the young men with whom they share +the pursuit of that laudable object. Lucius had the mortification of +feeling that if Mr. Binney had contented himself with working quietly +for a degree, and living the unobtrusive life which befitted his years, +the amused interest aroused by the event of father and son pursuing +their studies at the same time at the same college would have worn +itself out, and Mr. Binney might even have come to be considered in the +light of a pleasant acquaintance by Lucius's friends. He knew quite +well that his father would not be content with this humble role, and +that the intermittent sniping of which he was now the object would +develop into a regular fusillade of ridicule when Mr. Binney had had +time to spread himself a bit and become more notorious. + +He went back to his solitary rooms after hall and set himself down to +read. Poor boy, he was too dispirited to do anything else. He sported +himself in with the half-formed intention of refusing admittance to his +father if he should present himself. But up to ten o'clock, when the +college gates are shut to outsiders, no one had attempted to invade his +privacy. Soon afterwards he went to bed, having spent his first +evening at Cambridge entirely in his own society. For two days he +moped alone, keeping to his rooms as much as possible and only leaving +the college to go down to the river, where his fame was steadily +rising. His friends for the most part considerately kept out of his +way, thinking that he might be engaged in looking after his freshman +parent. But strangely enough he heard or saw nothing of Mr. Binney. +He avoided places where he was likely to meet him, and so far his +father had never once been to his rooms. + +On the third morning he determined to face the music. "If I'm to stop +up here," he said to himself--"and I can't go down now I've got a +chance of my Blue--I must make up my mind to get used to it. But it's +enough to make a fellow take to drink, or work, or something." Then he +put on his hat and went round to the "Pitt" Club. + +There was a group of men round the fire-place in the big room. +"Halloa! here's Binney Minor," said one of them. "How's your major +getting on, old man?" + +Then many agreeable pleasantries were fired off at him, while he sat on +one of the long seats and pretended to read a paper. When it was found +that the pleasantries did not amuse him, and he was taking his fate +seriously, they ceased, and by-and-bye an exodus took place and he was +left to himself. + +"I'm afraid poor old Lucy's papa is rather a trial to him," said one of +his late tormentors as they walked up Jesus Lane in the sedate and easy +manner affected by undergraduates who value their position. "What has +he come up for, any way?" + +"To look after Lucy, I suppose," said another, "but I don't know why; +_he's_ straight enough." + +"Have you seen the little beggar?" inquired Blathgowrie, who was one of +the group. "He's one of the rummiest little beggars you ever saw; +rather like an elderly jockey who's got into parliament. Can't think +where Lucy gets his good looks from. His mother must have been a +ripper." + +"I saw him on the river yesterday," said a rowing man; "he was coxing a +First Trinity boat and shouting away as if he had been at it all his +life. The crew looked frightened and the coach couldn't get a word in +edgeways. I think that little man is going to afford us some +amusement." + +"If he's going to play the fool," said the first man, "that's why Lucy +looks so glum when he's chaffed, and I don't wonder at it. I must say +it's beastly hard lines on him, and he's such a good chap. Binney +major's the sort of governor one would like to keep in the background. +Here's Dizzy." + +Dizzy was on his way to the "Pitt." When he got there he found Lucius +sitting alone, looking the picture of misery. A few Bloods were +talking blatantly round the fire, and some quiet members were trying to +write letters or read the papers in other parts of the room. + +"Well, how has he been behaving?" asked Dizzy, sitting down by his +friend. + +"I haven't seen him yet," said Lucius. "I can't think why." + +"Perhaps he means to behave decently and keep out of the way," +suggested Dizzy. + +"Not he," answered Lucius. "There's something up." + +There was. When Lucius got back to his rooms he found a note on his +table. + +"Dear Lucius," it ran, "Pray what is the meaning of your not coming to +call on me? You know very well that I can't go to your rooms until you +do, you being the senior man, and there are a lot of things I want to +talk to you about. You will find yourself L10 poorer at the end of the +year for this piece of impertinence, and let me advise you to be very +careful how you behave. Though a freshman I am still your father. +Come to tea this afternoon at five o'clock. I am not to be trifled +with.--P.B." + +The miserable Lucius went to his father's rooms on his way up from the +river. Mr. Binney had been on the river, too, and had not yet +returned. Lucius had an opportunity of surveying his father's +quarters. There was nothing to show they did not belong to the most +callow freshman of eighteen. There were two large shields with the +coats-of-arms of the University and Trinity College over the +mantelpiece. There was a Trinity coat-of-arms on the coal scuttle, on +the match-holders, the pipe-rack, and every article in the room that +could reasonably bear it, as well as on every piece of crockery that +was laid out on Mr. Binney's tea-table. The usual textbooks and +note-books lay about. Lucius looked into the latter and found a feeble +attempt at a caricature of a respected lecturer, signed P.B. On the +mantelpiece were some printed cards and papers relating to certain +small clubs and societies, of which the freshman seeks membership with +much avidity, and resigns with equal enthusiasm when he has reached the +dignity of his second year. On a chair lay Mr. Binney's cap and gown. +To Lucius's horror, the stiffening of the cap had disappeared, and the +gown had been cut short. These are the unfailing signs of the +second-rate undergraduate who wishes to be taken for a sporting +character. Some misguided but radically inoffensive freshmen fall +under the influence of such ideals in their early days, and grow out of +them afterwards. But surely Mr. Binney could not have made friends +with the rowdies yet! He had hardly had time to make friends with +anybody. + +Just then Mr. Binney himself came in. He was in his boating clothes, +of which he was not a little proud. + +"Oh, so you've condescended to come at last, have you?" he said. + +"I'm very sorry, father," said poor Lucius. "I'd no idea you would +stand on all that ceremony. I couldn't make out why you didn't turn +up. I thought perhaps you had made up your mind that it would be +better for us to take different lines." + +"Another ten pounds off," roared Mr. Binney, "you know what I said." + +"Oh, _damn_ it," said Lucius, losing patience. "I shan't have anything +left at all soon. I'd better go down at once, and have done with it." + +"How dare you swear at me, sir?" cried Mr. Binney. + +"Well, isn't it enough to make a chap swear?" answered Lucius, almost +crying. "I've had such a jolly time up here, and now I'm ashamed to +show my face. And as if that wasn't enough you take money off me every +time I open my mouth." + +Mr. Binney relented. He was fond of his son, and Lucius looked very +unhappy. "I'll let you off this time," he said, "but don't let it +occur again. Now, what I wanted to say was that I'm not getting on as +I expected. Not a soul has called on me except some one who wanted a +subscription for a missionary society. I was very pleased to give him +a sovereign, of course, but I could hardly take his call as a friendly +visit. I have picked up a few friends of my own year at hall and +elsewhere, but that isn't what I want. I want to know the +distinguished men. You know them. Why haven't you sent some of them +to call on me?" + +"Look here, father," said Lucius. "It's no use going on like this. +The people I know don't go in for all this 'calling' rot, and I'm not +going to ask them to. If you _must_ know that particular lot, you'll +meet some of them in my rooms occasionally, and if they take to you, +well, you'll get to know some of them. But you must take your chance +just like anybody else. It's no good pushing things." + +"Well, there's sense in that," said Mr. Binney. "You can have a little +dinner in your rooms. I'll pay for it, and I daresay we shall be very +good friends before the evening is out. I suppose you couldn't get +Muttlebury up for it, could you? You said you knew him. I should like +to meet Muttlebury." + +"No, I couldn't," said Lucius shortly. + +"Well, any blues will do. I should like to be able to tell Minshull I +dined with a party of blues. He only knew one, and that very +slightly--Widgeon, who put the hammer or something last year. He was +at Peterhouse--Pothouse, I mean. By-the-bye, I suppose there's no harm +in my looking up men of my own year, is there?" + +"I suppose not, not if you use your sense about it." + +"Now, what about the 'Pitt' Club? When is the election?" + +"I don't know. In about a fortnight I should think." + +"Is my name down for it?" + +"No." + +"And why not, pray?" + +"I've only been there once since I came up." + +"Put it down at once, then, and don't lose any more time about it. +Minshull had never heard of the 'Pitt,' but I have learnt since I came +up that all the best known people belong to it. And I should like to +belong to the A.D.C. too." + +"I daresay I can manage that for you. I'm on the committee now, and we +are always very kind; but, look here, father, there's not the slightest +chance of your belonging to the 'Pitt' or the A.D.C. either if you +don't keep yourself in the background at first. And whatever made you +knock the stuffing out of your cap like that? It's only the rowdies +whom nobody respectable has anything to do with who go in for that sort +of thing." + +"Minshull told me that if you wore a new cap and gown everybody took +you for a smug," said Mr. Binney. + +"Minshull's a fool," said Lucius, with withering scorn. "You'd better +take my advice about things like that, not his. And I should buy +myself a new cap if I were you." + +A few days after, Dizzy gave a dinner. Most of his guests had arrived +and were discussing the vagaries of Mr. Binney, who by this time had +become a public character, when Blathgowrie arrived in a state of some +perturbation. + +"I say, you fellows," he said, as he came in. "This business will have +to be stopped. I've had that little bantam in my rooms since seven +o'clock. I'm not going to stand it." + +"What did he want?" + +"Said he hadn't seen me in hall, and wondered what had become of +me--thought he'd pay me a friendly call." + +"What did you do?" + +"Well, I was civil for the sake of poor old Lucy. But I didn't get him +out of the room for an hour, and he said he was coming again. Hang me +if I ever saw such a pushing little scug." + +"Lucy ought to tell him to keep to himself." + +"Bless you, _he_ can't help it," said Dizzy. "He gets his screw docked +every time he suggests such a thing." + +"Well, I call it a beastly shame. But if Lucius can't do it, somebody +else must." + +"I'll do it," said Blathgowrie. "I'm not shy. He's bound to turn up +again soon; said we were fellow freshmen, or some such rot, and ought +to know one another better. He'll know _me_ better before I've done +with him. Hush, here's Lucy." + +Mr. Binney was not elected to the "Pitt" Club, and Lucius had not been +able to bring himself to propose his name for membership of the A.D.C., +preferring to lose the L10 of income which his father knocked off for +each rebuff, than to put his colleagues to the awkward necessity of +either rejecting his nomination, or of electing his father to clubs +where he was not wanted. Nor did his dinner bring about that measure +of popularity which Mr. Binney had hoped for. Lucius asked four of his +tried friends, who were very polite, very much bored, and retired +early. Dizzy might have saved the situation, but Dizzy had gone up to +town with an _exeat_. Mr. Binney had by this time joined the Union and +spoken twice. He could talk of nothing else and looked forward with +confidence to filling the President's chair. + +A few nights afterwards he again invaded Blathgowrie. It was about +half-past nine, and that estimable nobleman had a select party of about +twelve playing the unallowable game. + +There was an abashed silence when little Mr. Binney entered and flung +his cap and gown on a chair. + +"Good evening, Mr. Binney," said Blathgowrie. "We are engaged in a +quiet game of whist. Could you make it convenient to call on another +occasion?" + +"Don't mention it, my lord; don't mention it," said Mr. Binney. "I'll +make myself comfortable and look on. I should like to see whist +played. It is a game I am unacquainted with, although I recollect when +I was a young fellow Snap and Old Maid used to be favourite games in +the family circle." + +"They're favourite games up here," said Blathgowrie, "and so are Hunt +the Slipper and Puss in the Corner. We'll play Puss in the Corner when +we've finished this, and you shall be poor pussy. What, not going yet, +Astley!" + +But first one and then another of Blathgowrie's friends was afraid he +must be going, and in ten minutes he was alone with Mr. Binney, putting +up the cards with unimpaired cheerfulness. + +"I'm very sorry I've disturbed your game," said Mr. Binney, whom this +wholesale exodus had considerably amazed. + +"Not at all, Mr. Binney, not at all. My friends are in the habit of +retiring to rest early. They're all anxious to catch the worm +to-morrow, you know." + +"Don't call me Mr. Binney," said Peter; "call me Binney. We're of the +same standing, you know." + +"So we are, Binney," acquiesced Blathgowrie. "Well, Binney, how do you +find yourself? Pretty well, thank you?" + +Mr. Binney began to grow suspicious. + +"I hope, sir, I'm not intruding on you," he began. + +"Well, Binney," said Blathgowrie, "to tell you the plain truth, you do +intrude confoundedly." + +Mr. Binney started up out of his chair. + +"Pray sit down, Binney," said Blathgowrie. "I am commissioned by my +friends and your son's--Lucy's, you know--to tell you we consider +you're behaving in a devilish mean and shabby manner to him. He's done +his best for you, you know, but to tell you the truth we don't care for +you, Binney. You're not quite our sort, you know---a year or two older +perhaps--and we really can't have you poking in your nose where you're +not wanted. There are plenty of nice quiet Johnnies about who'll be +very pleased to make your acquaintance, especially if you feed them +well, but speaking for the unworthy people whom you honour with your +attentions at present, I beg to inform you that they are declined with +thanks." + +Mr. Binney arose in his wrath. He was somewhat violent and altogether +incoherent. Blathgowrie handed him his cap and gown and opened the +door for him. + +"Good-night, Binney," he said, "mind the step;" and Mr. Binney +disappeared down the staircase. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MR. BINNEY SPEAKS AT THE UNION AND MAKES A DISTINGUISHED ACQUAINTANCE + +Mr. Binney went out of Blathgowrie's lodgings and into the street in a +white heat of indignation. His blood boiled within him at the +indignity to which he had been subjected. Was it possible that he, +Peter Binney, the founder of a great commercial house, the Bloomsbury +ratepayer, the almost successful candidate for the London County +Council, had been told in so many words by a mere slip of an impudent +boy that his society was not wanted by him and his callow friends? +What next! he wondered. As if he cared for their contemptible society! +Pshaw! It was the other way about. If they had had the slightest idea +how his name was respected in the City, they would have sung a _very_ +different tune. He wouldn't have their acquaintance now, or join their +precious clubs if the committee went down on their bended knees and +begged him to do so. He flung into his rooms burning with anger +against the whole insolent crew of them, and most of all against his +son, Lucius, whom he unjustly accused of being the disloyal cause of +his late reverse. + +"Ah, Binney, I thocht ye wouldn't be long, and I'd just wait for ye," +said a voice with a strong Scotch accent, from the depths of Mr. +Binney's armchair. + +"Oh, that you, M'Gee!" said Mr. Binney. "I'm pleased to see you. But +you'll excuse me for being a little upset. I've just undergone a piece +of monstrous impertinence from my Lord Blathgowrie, and I scarcely know +how to contain my anger." + +"Toch!" exclaimed M'Gee. "What for do ye want to mix yourself up with +such trash? I've come to talk to you about the Union. Sit down, man, +and listen." + +M'Gee, like Mr. Binney, was a freshman, and like Mr. Binney again, had +come up to Cambridge many years later than the average young man enters +upon his University course. He was the son of a Highland gillie, and +had succeeded with incredible difficulty, as far as money was +concerned, in gaining a degree at a Scotch University. But that had +not sufficed for him. He was ambitious, and extremely tenacious of +ideas. He had early made up his mind to bring his brains to the market +of Cambridge, and at Cambridge he accordingly found himself at the age +of thirty-seven, with a scholarship at St. John's College, and nothing +else upon which to support himself except his determination to succeed +to the highest honours that Cambridge could afford. He had joined the +Union with a shrewd and resolute eye to the President's chair, but the +lighter social success which held such a charm from Mr. Binney's point +of view he regarded with the most lofty scorn. Self-contained and +self-reliant as he was, however, he was not entirely without a human +weakness for sympathy and encouragement in his aims, and had fixed upon +Mr. Binney, as one who shared with him some of the accidents of his +position, with whom to indulge in the occasional luxury of discussing +his ambitions. + +"I wouldn't give a thought to these young 'bloods,' as they call them," +said M'Gee. "They'll be of no use to ye. They make a big splash while +they are up here, but when they go down they're no better than dirt." +Here M'Gee snapped a bony finger and thumb. "I'm no saying that I'd +like to be nothing but a worker in Cambridge," he went on. "You keep +to yourself for three years and you come out Senior Wrangler at the end +of it, and they put your picture in the papers. And then you go down, +and what glory do you get from it? There's aye one way of getting +yourself known here, if you're a man of brains, and that's at the +Union. Go round the rooms and look at the pictures of the Presidents +from the beginning. Why, man, there's not a dozen of them that isn't +known to the world at large. That's fame. And it's the sort of fame +that's worth having. Colloguing wi' lords an' that is a puir thing to +it." + +"You're right, M'Gee," cried Mr. Binney, springing up, "You're right. +A lord! What's a lord and all his hangers-on? Froth! Dregs! Dirt! +as you rightly remark. I won't have my boy associating with such." + +"Leave your boy alone," said M'Gee. "He is a boy, and does very well +as he is. You and I are men, and we'll make use of this place which +most of them don't know the value of. Study the questions of the day, +give a lot of preparation to your speeches, and speak every time the +house sits. Force 'em to take account of you and you'll come out top." + +"I will," said Mr. Binney, now greatly excited. "I _can_ come out top +if I want to. I know I can. You and I will be carried down to +posterity, M'Gee, as two of the greatest Presidents the Union has ever +had. To-day's Monday. To-morrow I speak on the vaccination question. +I don't take any interest in it, but I'll get the subject up thoroughly +in the meantime, and my speech will surprise them." + +And so Mr. Binney changed his social aspirations, and wrote long +letters to Mrs. Higginbotham describing the acclamations with which he +was received when he rose to speak at the Union, and painting in vivid +colours the honours paid to the occupant of the President's chair, that +chair which had been filled by so many illustrious men. + +He and M'Gee spoke every Tuesday in that term. M'Gee was intolerably +dogmatic, metaphysical and long-winded, always heard the secretary's +bell ring before he had half finished his argument, and invariably +emptied the house of all but the long-suffering officials whenever he +rose to his feet. Mr. Binney as surely filled it. He was a wind-bag, +but a wind-bag who delighted his audience in the same way as a monkey +on an organ is a source of appreciation not so much for its innate +humour as for the unstudied expression of its personality. It was +quite true that Mr. Binney roused the applause of the assembly. The +incipient statesmen lolling on the benches or writing notes on their +knees or strolling up to have a word with the President in his seat of +state, cheered him on, laughed uproariously at his witticisms as well +as at his studied and serious periods, and could never have enough of +him. It was a long time since any speaker at the Union had amused his +audience so well, and he was in the seventh heaven of delight at his +popularity until the elections for the officers at the end of the term, +when both he and M'Gee stood for the committee, and appeared at the +bottom of the list, M'Gee with thirty votes and Mr. Binney with six. +This was a serious blow to him, and he began to realise that he had +been looked upon as a buffoon. + +But before this other things had happened. Although debarred from the +society of those with whom he had at first tried to ally himself, Mr. +Binney had contracted many acquaintanceships with men of his own year +and others who did not place the value of their friendship very high. +The boys fresh from school who had come up at the same time as himself +looked upon him as a great joke, ate his breakfasts and luncheons and +occasional dinners, and asked him to their own in return. As he showed +himself anxious to be considered one of themselves, they obliged him, +with perhaps more familiarity and slappings on the back than they +usually made use of to one another. But Mr. Binney enjoyed it and felt +he was getting on famously. He greatly appreciated the tales of daring +which freshmen love to tell one another, about exciting runs from +avenging Proctors, and smart, one-sided conversations with Deans, in +which the freshman is always represented as using such witty and +convincing arguments that the Dean can only sit and listen, and is glad +to get rid of him at last at any price if he will only allow the +management of the college to remain in its present inefficient hands a +little longer. Mr. Binney had not as yet emulated any of these deeds +of daring, for he still looked upon the authorities with considerable +awe, and was turning his attention for the most part towards getting +his work ready for the first part of the Littlego and maintaining his +reputation at the Union. But he thought them very fine for all that, +and it was not long before he fell. + +Among his fellow-freshmen was one, Brandon, a Rugby football-player, +who had once or twice played for the University. He was not a Blue +yet, but he was the next best thing to it, and Mr. Binney cultivated +his society in the intervals of his more serious pursuits. Brandon had +a friend called Howden who was a Blue, a great, noisy, good-natured, +ignorant ox, who was in constant danger of being sent down for his +numerous breaches of discipline. + +Howden came into Brandon's rooms one morning to fish for a dinner, his +affairs being in a chronic state of financial depression. He used no +unnecessary finesse in stating his ends. + +"I've taken my name off hall to-night," he said, "and don't know where +to feed. Got anything going, Brandy?" + +"I'm going to dine with Binney," said Brandon. "You'd better come too." + +"What! that stuck-up ass!" said Howden. "Didn't know you knew him. +No, thanks. I don't mix with Bloods." + +"Oh, I don't mean Lucy Binney," said Brandon, "I don't know him. The +bantam's my pal." + +"What! that little old man!" exclaimed Howden. "Whatever do you want +to go and dine with him for? He'll report you to the dons if you make +a row, and I don't care for dining where I can't enjoy myself." + +"My dear chap," said Brandon, "you can make as much row as you like. +He'll be all the better pleased. He's a tremendous little sportsman. +He gives you the best fizz and as much as you want of it." + +"The deuce he does! All right, I'll come, Brandy. I don't know him. +I suppose that don't matter." + +"Not a bit," said Brandon. "I'll make that all right. 19A Jesus Lane, +eight o'clock." + +"Right you are," said Howden. "Don't forget. I shall turn up." + +Mr. Binney was as pleased as Punch when he learnt that he was at last +going to be honoured by the company of a Blue, and made an excuse to +write a note to Minshull in which he casually mentioned that he was +expecting Howden, "who plays back for the 'Varsity," to dinner that +night. + +Howden came and made himself agreeable to his host. Mr. Binney was +delighted to find that such a great man was not inclined to stand on +any ceremony. The rest of the party were freshmen, who were also +inclined to treat the great Howden with deference, but in the course of +the dinner the deference vanished, and the company got hilarious and on +perfectly good terms with one another. After dinner they "ragged," and +played a little game of "Soccer" with a sofa cushion, in the course of +which Mr. Binney got the wind knocked out of his body, and was not +sorry when his landlord came up to inform him that the chandelier in +the room below had fallen down. + +"Let's go round and rag old Tubby Vane," said Howden. + +Vane was another football Blue, and lived in college. So the party +moved round in a body to the New Court. Vane kept on the third floor, +and was out, so his visitors were baffled for the moment. + +"There's old Miniken keeps below," said Mr. Binney, who was enjoying +himself to the full in this distinguished company. "Let's go and rag +_him_." + +Miniken was a Union light, a quiet reading man, when he was not +thundering forth Radical views in the debates. Mr. Binney did not know +him very well, but wished to display the brilliant Howden to his +astonished gaze. + +"All right," said Howden. "Never heard of him, but I daresay he keeps +very good whisky. Come on." + +Miniken's oak was sported. + +"He's skulking," said Howden. "Let's kick his oak in." + +"Hi! Miniken! Come out of that, you old beggar," yelled Mr. Binney; +but all was silence. + +Howden took a short run and kicked in a panel. Mr. Binney took a short +run at the same panel, and got his foot wedged. When he had been +extricated with unnecessary violence by his companions, a combined +assault was made upon the oak, which presently gave way. The rooms +were empty. + +Howden turned up the lights and made a search for something to drink, +which was unsuccessful, as Miniken was a teetotaller. Then they "made +hay" of his rooms, and, after completely changing their aspect, left, +to avoid an interview with a porter who was coming up the staircase to +see what the disturbance was about. Mr. Binney never doubted but that +Miniken would be quite as amused as themselves when he came back, and +not a little flattered at receiving a visit from the august Howden, if +he found out who was responsible for the altered appearance of his +apartments. + +When Miniken did return he was naturally annoyed at the discovery of +what had taken place. He obtained from the porter the names of his +invaders, and sat down and wrote a letter of complaint to the Senior +Dean. Then he put his room to rights and went to bed. + +In the meantime Mr. Binney went home, greatly pleased with his +evening's entertainment. Before retiring to rest he wrote a full +account of it to Mrs. Higginbotham, and expatiated on the popularity +that must accrue to him from having made a friend of Howden, who, +before parting from him, had assured him that he was one of the best +fellows he had ever met, and that he would stick by him and come and +dine with him whenever he liked. + +The next day Mr. Binney was requested to call on the Junior Dean at a +specified hour. He did so with some inward trepidation, and waited in +the ante-room where a secretary was at work, who informed him that the +Dean was engaged, but would see him in a few minutes. Presently steps +were heard on the staircase, and to his surprise Lucius entered the +room. + +"Halloa! you hauled too?" said the little man with a sheepish grin. +"What for?" + +"I don't know. Chapels, I suppose," said Lucius, who had heard of his +father's escapade, and whose face was covered with a deep blush. + +"I hope we shan't get gated," said Mr. Binney. "What are you going to +say to the old chap?" + +Before Lucius had time to reply the Dean's door opened, and Mr. Binney +was summoned into the presence of the "old chap," who had been in +frocks when "Binney's Food for Poultry" was first becoming known. + +"Sit down, Mr. Binney," said the Dean, who appeared unaccountably +nervous. "I see you have not kept the requisite number of chapels +since the beginning of term. Is there any reason for that? I see by +my list that you have not been once to chapel on a Sunday." + +Mr. Binney breathed a sigh of relief and drew himself up. + +"I prefer to attend my own place of worship on the Sabbath," he said, +twisting his cap by the tassel. + +"Ah! you are perhaps a Nonconformist," said the Dean. + +"I am," said Mr. Binney; "and I'm not ashamed of it." + +"No reason to be, Mr. Binney," said the Dean. "I needn't trouble you +any more on that score then," and he made a pencil note on the paper +before him. "But there is another matter," he went on, "which, I +confess, it surprises me to have to bring before a man of +your--er--standing. I understand that you and some others broke in the +door of Mr. Miniken's rooms last night, and took most unwarrantable +liberties with his furniture. I could hardly believe it, but I am +assured that it is so." + +"It was a mere freak, sir," said Mr. Binney boldly. "I went round with +Howden--the football Blue----" + +"You needn't bring in anybody else's name," said the Dean. + +"Well, we went round to call on--on another football Blue, but he was +out, and as old Miniken, who is a friend of mine, happened to live +below him, I said, 'Let's go and rouse him up.' He was sported, so we +kicked in his oak for a lark. We didn't mean any harm. Of course, I'm +quite willing to pay for repairing the door." + +The Dean passed his hand over his mouth. + +"That you will have to do, of course, you and the others between you," +he said. "But I may as well tell you, Mr. Binney, that we don't +recognise such larks here. If you want to behave like a troublesome +boy, you had better go somewhere else. You are gated at eight for a +fortnight, and don't let me hear of any such piece of folly again, or +you won't get off so easily." + +Mr. Binney took himself off feeling rather ashamed, but still a little +pleased with himself. "Gated at eight for a fortnight," he said, as he +joined his son in the ante-room, where Blathgowrie had also made his +appearance. + +"Serve you right, you little ass," said Blathgowrie as Lucius entered +the presence chamber. "Now run along and play." + +"You were not with your father, I think, when the door in the New Court +was broken in?" said the Dean. + +"No, I wasn't," said Lucius shortly, his face a deep red. + +The Dean threw a quick glance at him. + +"Is your father--?" he began, and then stopped. + +"Off his head?" said Lucius. "I don't know. I never thought he was +until he came up here. I know _I_ shall be, pretty soon, if this goes +on." + +"I didn't mean that," said the Dean, "I was going to ask if he intended +to stop here until he takes a degree." + +"I suppose so, if he isn't sent down first," said Lucius bitterly. + +The Dean could not disguise a smile. "Don't get downhearted about it, +Binney," he said kindly, "we've all got our little trials to bear. One +of mine is having continually to ask undergraduates why they don't come +to chapel. I see you haven't kept a single chapel this term. How is +that?" + +"I was afraid I might meet my father," said Lucius. + +The Dean smiled again. + +"Your father has conscientious objections to joining in our services," +he said, "and I'm afraid I couldn't accept that as an excuse in any +case. Have you been anywhere instead?" + +"I go to King's sometimes." + +"Well, I think you had better come to Trinity sometimes too in the +future. Good-night, Binney." + +His introduction to Howden was the beginning of Mr. Binney's fall from +steadiness. He soon made the acquaintance of other athletes of similar +character to Howden, and was very proud of being seen about with them. +These accommodating gentlemen had no sort of objection to his being +constantly in their company, so long as he fed them generously and put +no check on their boisterous behaviour when he was with them. And Mr. +Binney was far from wishing to do this. The new cap which he had +bought under Lucius's directions was soon exchanged for a very old and +battered one. Howden and all his friends were rowdies, and Mr. Binney +in his mild way became a rowdy too. + +One Tuesday evening towards the end of the term, Lucius found himself +in the gallery at the Union listening to a debate on the motion: "That +this house views with alarm the growing tyranny of University +officials," and sat dejectedly through an uproariously applauded speech +from his father, in the course of which Mr. Binney inquired "why a +fellow shouldn't smoke in cap and gown if he wanted to," and was twice +called to order for alluding to "the progginses." + +"Come out of this; it makes me sick," he said to his companion. They +went out and strolled slowly down Jesus Lane to Edwards's billiard +rooms. Opposite the "Pitt," Mr. Binney passed them with two of his +noisy friends, carrying his gown on his arm. He did not notice them, +nor a Proctor who was coming along Park Street, and Lucius had the +gratification of seeing his father stopped at the corner, and +peremptorily ordered to put on his gown by the Proctor. Mr. Binney did +as he was told, taking off his gown again when the Proctor had turned +his back, and was let into his lodgings feeling himself the very devil +of a fellow. + +After his first escapade with Howden, Mr. Binney was a little upset by +a letter he received from Mrs. Higginbotham in answer to the one in +which he had given her an account of the proceedings. + +"You must not let yourself be led away by your high spirits," wrote +Mrs. Higginbotham, "and pray be careful that these new grand young +friends you have made do not lead you astray. I should like you to +keep a good character with your masters and bring home a good report at +the end of the term. My dear father often used to say that he would +rather my brothers won the conduct prize at school than any other, and +they always did so, which pleased my father very much until he +discovered that they used to buy the prizes themselves out of their +very liberal allowance of pocket money and write their master's name in +them, which was not right, and earned them a whipping from Mr. +Wilkinson who was at that time the head of the Lewisham Academy for +Young Gentlemen, where they were educated, as well as another from my +father, which they told me was far the worse of the two, as I can quite +credit, because my dear father, who made his own way in the world, had +been employed in early life in a furniture warehouse, and among his +duties was that of beating carpets." + +Mr. Binney wrote in answer that little occurrences such as the one in +which he had taken part were common in Cambridge and increased the fame +of those who inaugurated them, and rebuked Mrs. Higginbotham for +talking of his "masters." "The 'Varsity is not a school, my dear +Martha," wrote Mr. Binney, "and we are allowed a great deal of freedom +to amuse ourselves as we please." + +Mr. Binney and Lucius now saw very little of one another, but before +Mr. Binney had allied himself with Howden and his crew, Lucius had paid +him a visit one afternoon and found a young man with a long, solemn +face not unlike Minshull's sitting on Mr. Binney's sofa. + +"Ah, Lucius," said Mr. Binney, "I'm glad you have come. This is your +mother's cousin, John Jermyn, whose father you may have heard me speak +of as a respected clergyman in Norfolk. John tells me he has gained a +scholarship at Queens' and I am very glad to hear it--very glad. It is +most laudable of him. We must go and call on him when we have time. +Let me see, where is Queens'? That little college at the end of the +Backs with a wooden bridge, isn't it? Quite so. A very nice little +college indeed. I should have liked to have been at Queens' myself if +I hadn't been at Trinity. Pity you couldn't come to Trinity, John. +However, we can't all be at the best college, can we?" + +After a little more patronage from his uncle, John Jermyn took his +leave. + +"You must look that young fellow up, Lucius," said Mr. Binney, "and he +tells me his sister Elizabeth is at Girton. They both came up this +term. A clever family. You must go and call on her too--I believe +it's allowed--I don't care about going out there myself. Their mother +was a great friend of your dear mother's when they were girls together. +We never saw much of her after she was married, for her husband held +his head high, although I have never heard that he was at Trinity or +any good college as a young man. It is our turn to hold our heads high +now, but you must certainly call on John and Elizabeth, and show them +that we are not too proud to recognise our relations." + +Lucius did call on John Jermyn soon afterwards and asked him to lunch. +The two young men found they had very little in common and the +acquaintanceship dropped. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE NEWNHAM GIRL + +The morning hours in Cambridge are for books, the afternoon for +exercise, and the evening for social intercourse. So, at least, the +majority of the undergraduate members of the University regard them, +and sometimes throw in an extra hour or two of work between tea and +dinner. Of course there are those who work all the evening as well as +all the morning, and there are others who do not work at all; but the +morning for lectures and books is a general rule, and one that has few +exceptions, however squeezed up the morning may be between late +breakfast and early luncheon. If you go into the Great Court of +Trinity, let us say about ten minutes to eleven in the morning, you +will find it, comparatively speaking, deserted. Quite deserted it +never is, unless in the dead hours of night, and not always then; but +now its chief occupants appear to be the bed-makers, who empty their +pails down the gratings, or stand for a few minutes' gossip by their +respective staircases. Every now and then an idler passes through in a +leisurely manner, or a don scurries across the grass in a terrible +hurry. White-aproned cooks from the college kitchens collect plate and +crockery from the various gyp-rooms and carry them away in green boxes +balanced on their heads. Tradesmen's boys, their baskets on their +arms, pass from one staircase to another, quite unawed by their +surroundings, whistling as if their errands were taking them down a +street of numbered houses instead of to the studious rooms of a +venerable college, for centuries devoted to learning. But of the +undergraduate life which is so busy in the courts of a college at other +times of the day there is very little, for most undergraduates are +listening to lecturers or coaches, or reading in their own rooms. + +But the hour strikes and everything is changed. Men in gowns of blue +or black, with note-books under their arms, come pouring out of the +lecture-rooms into the court. Interspersed with them are the +lecturers, laden with books, their long gowns and ribbons flying; and +most curious of all, little groups of girls stand about the court +waiting until it is time for another lecturer to appear and dart +hurriedly into the room where his wisdom is to keep them entranced for +the next hour. How horrified our grandfathers would have been could +they have pictured girls and men sitting in the same lecture-room +to-day, and how incredulous, could they have been told what a very +little difference such an unforeseen arrangement would make in the +daily life of their colleges. For the women are already in Cambridge. +They have their own colleges, and if they have not yet their own +lecturers, they make very good use of ours. And, strange to say, +nobody takes much notice of them, or realises that they are there at +all, except when they form their little groups round the college +doorways, or when their names are read out before those of the men in +the Senate House, or when they want something which Cambridge with all +its chivalry is not quite prepared to give them. + +One such little group of girls was standing by the Trinity Chapel one +bright November morning in the first term of Lucius's second year, +waiting for the learned gentleman who was to lecture to them during the +next hour on some subject connected with the Classical Tripos. The +learned gentleman was a little late and all the other lecturers had by +this time penned their flocks and were busily engaged in feeding, and +in some cases shearing them. The men who were booked for the same +lecture as the girls were standing in twos and threes a little distance +away, or strolling up and down the flagged pathways. At ten minutes +past the hour the lecturer was seen approaching at a hurried pace from +the direction of Neville's Court, and a minute later, girls, men, and +lecturer had disappeared, and the Great Court had settled down again to +its normal morning condition of dignified calm. + +One of the girls was conspicuously attractive. She wore a neat costume +of blue serge and a hat that showed up the gold of her pretty head. +Her eyes were blue and innocent, her little nose had a mischievous tilt +to it, and her mouth was like Cupid's bow. These last named +attractions were not visible to Lucius Binney, who sat at the corner of +a desk a few rows behind her; but he had a good view of the soft curves +of a delicate tinted cheek, and a little shell-like ear perched +coquettishly underneath the wavy brown hair, and, to do him justice, +these beauties were not unappreciated by him, for he paid a good deal +more attention to them than to the dulcet tones of the learned +lecturer. It was now about the middle of the Michaelmas term, and +Lucius had already sat in the same corner and looked at the same girl +three times a week since the beginning of term, eleven times in all, +and each time he looked his sense of the beautiful was more satisfied +than before. Besides minor varieties the girl sometimes wore another +costume of grey-green cloth and a felt hat to match, with a woodcock's +tip in it. Lucius was like the lover in Tennyson's poem who speaks of +his lady's dresses:-- + + "Now I know her but in two, + Nor can pronounce upon it, + If one should ask me whether + The habit, hat and feather, + Or the frock and gipsy bonnet + Be the neater and completer; + For nothing could be sweeter + Than maiden Maud in either." + + +He sometimes spoke of her to Dizzy, who attended the same lecture, and +whose admiration of the girl was aesthetically great, but had not +succeeded in penetrating his feelings. These two would hang about the +court, chatting unconcernedly together, while she went out through the +Great Gate with her companions. After the first week, when Lucius's +appreciation of her charms had begun to bite a little, she sometimes +gave him the merest glance out of the corners of her blue eyes as she +passed him. There seemed to be a trace of amusement lurking in the +glance, and Lucius understood that his admiration, although by no means +obtrusive, had been observed--and dared he hope in some measure +accepted?--by its object. + +"Oh, Dizzy, old man, she really _is_--that girl!" sighed Lucius, after +silently watching the blue serge coat and skirt and the fair hair under +the little hat disappear round the corner. "She really _is_--" + +What she really was did not transpire, but Dizzy quite understood and +agreed. + +"She's a topper," said Dizzy. "I can't say fairer than that. She's a +topper." + +"Have you noticed those little fluffy curls on her neck?" inquired +Lucius. "With most girls they stick out straight and look as if they +ought to be tucked in somewhere. But hers don't." + +"Why don't you take a snap-shot at them with a Kodak in the +lecture-room?" suggested Dizzy. + +Lucius did buy a Kodak after this, and stayed away from the charmed +lecture-room one morning with a heavy heart, in order to take +photographs of the girl as she went through the court to and from the +lecture. He ensconced himself in a friend's rooms on the kitchen +staircase, the nearest position he could gain, for he did not want her +to see him standing in the court; but after pressing the button +feverishly six or eight times, and waiting impatiently for three weeks +until the other people had done the rest, he was rewarded with several +curious pictures of fog effects, only one of which showed a scene which +could be recognised as the Great Court, with a few dark little spots +some miles away, which Lucius interpreted as the girl and her +companions leaving the college, but did not gain much satisfaction from +the possession of them even with the help of a magnifying glass. + +The girl was a Newnhamite (hideous word!). Lucius and Dizzy knew that +much, though they could not discover her name. She must have known +theirs, for the lecturer was in the habit of calling them over after +each lecture. Unfortunately he omitted to do so in the case of the +lady students. + +"It's just my luck, you know," said Lucius disconsolately. "I've got a +cousin of sorts at Girton. I ought to have looked her up before now--I +promised the governor I would--and I'd have done it pretty quick, you +bet, if she had had the sense to go to the other place." + +"What is she like?" asked Dizzy. + +"I don't know. I've never seen her. She is a sister of my cousin at +Queens'." + +"Oh, I should look her up if I were you. She may be pretty," said +Dizzy. + +"Have you seen my cousin at Queens'?" + +Dizzy had, and acknowledged that the inferences were not encouraging. + +"Still there's no telling," he said. "She may be a regular topper." + +"Her father's a country parson," said Lucius, "and she has never been +anywhere. I don't see the fun of tramping out to Girton to see a fat +girl with spectacles." + +"And a space between her belt and the top of her skirt with hooks and +eyes showing," added Dizzy. "No, I agree with you it isn't good +enough, although, of course, she may be a topper, you can't tell." + +Lucius did bicycle out to Girton before the end of the term along a +straight and appallingly hideous road, only to find Miss Jermyn "not at +home" at the end of it, and then dismissed his cousin Elizabeth and +Girton College from his mind, and indulged himself in roseate dreams of +the Newnham girl instead. Although he was constantly plunged in shame +at the behaviour of his father, and was gradually growing poorer and +poorer as time went on, owing to Mr. Binney's relentless views on the +subject of filial conduct, his first term at Cambridge in the +companionship of his father was not altogether an unhappy one. + +At the end of it Mr. Binney went in for the first part of his Little-go +and failed ignominiously, for his work had greatly deteriorated since +he had been admitted to the friendship of Howden and the rest. But the +disquieting news did not reach him until he had left Cambridge at the +beginning of the Christmas vacation, and that blow was not added to the +one caused by his failure at the Union, and another which befel him at +the end of term in the shape of an interview with his Tutor. Mr. +Rimington looked grave as Mr. Binney entered his presence, and shook +hands with him without his usual smile. + +"Sit down, please, Mr. Binney," he said. "I didn't send for you when I +heard about that foolish affair in Mr. Miniken's rooms, because I +thought you must have taken part in it against your will, and I +couldn't but believe that nothing of the sort would happen again. But +I learn, to my surprise, that you seem to have made a--a specialty of +that sort of behaviour, and however unpleasant the duty may be, I must +remonstrate seriously with you on the course you have adopted here." + +Mr. Binney's mouth was dry. Mr. Rimington's tone was more conciliatory +than that of the Junior Dean, but the latter, after his first few +words, had treated him just like any other undergraduate, while Mr. +Rimington addressed him as a middle-aged gentleman who had been making +a fool of himself; and Mr. Binney disliked this above all things. + +Mr. Rimington paused, and Mr. Binney felt he was expected to speak. + +"I was gated for that affair of Miniken's, sir," he said with a gulp, +"and the subject ought to be at an end. It was foolish, perhaps, but +it was all done in good part, and I had no idea the man would make such +a fuss about it. Since then I am not aware of having done anything to +bring my conduct under the notice of the officials of the college." + +Mr. Rimington heard him out in grave silence. "You have done nothing +that has actually had to be punished," he said, "but if you imagine, +Mr. Binney, that your conduct has not come very seriously under the +notice of the officials of the college, you are mistaken. Behaviour +that would not call for much remark from a boy of eighteen or nineteen +is a different matter in a man of your age. For one thing it is +demoralising in the extreme to the undergraduates with whom you +associate. It is a very disagreeable task to have to point this out to +you, and I must say that it surprises me exceedingly that there should +be any necessity for my having to do so." He paused so as to give Mr. +Binney a chance of speaking, who, however, took no advantage of his +opportunity, but sat gazing on the carpet. His attitude seemed to show +that he was taking his Tutor's remonstrances to heart, but a slight +frown on his brow and the set of his mouth belied that assumption. + +"Have you anything to say, Mr. Binney?" asked the Tutor. + +"I should like to hear what _you_ have got to say first, sir," said Mr. +Binney. "Then I will give utterance to my opinions." + +"Very well," said Mr. Rimington. "Then I had better say what I have +got to say in as few words and as strongly as possible. When we talked +over your coming up here as an undergraduate in the spring, I pointed +out that it would hardly be fair to your son to be under your constant +supervision, and I pointed out other reasons why I thought you should +reconsider your decision. You did not agree with me, and the +objections were not strong enough to induce the college to refuse your +application when you persisted in making it. No man in his senses +could have foreseen that at the end of your first term, your son, who +has been here over a year, should bear a high character in the college, +while you, his father, should be giving us a great deal of trouble in +matters of conduct. If that could have been foreseen I need scarcely +say that we should not have admitted you. + +"Now, look here, Mr. Rimington," said Mr. Binney, with his most +uncompromising air. "I take great objection to your manner of speaking +to me. My son I refuse to discuss. As far as I myself am concerned, +you have acknowledged that with one exception, for which I have paid +the appointed penalty, my conduct has not been such as to have called +for any special remark, supposing I had been of the age of the ordinary +undergraduate with whom you have to deal. I take my stand on that +statement. These references to my age are offensive to me. I am here +in the position of an ordinary undergraduate, and I demand fair +treatment as such. That puts the matter in a nutshell." + +Mr. Rimington kept his temper. "You seem to forget, Mr. Binney," he +said quietly, "that no ordinary undergraduate would be permitted to +speak to me in those terms. You take advantage of your age, which I +think is about the same as mine, to address me as an equal, but wish it +to be ignored entirely in my estimation of your behaviour. That, of +course, is an unreasonable demand, and one that I cannot entertain. I +sent for you to remonstrate with you on the course that you have seen +fit to adopt. But as you have taken my remonstrance so badly, I must +point out to you that my powers go far beyond a mere remonstrance, and +if you are incapable of seeing yourself in the wrong and mending your +ways, the college will have to think very seriously of asking you to +take your name off the books." + +"Then, sir," said Mr. Binney, now very angry, "I have to inform you +that I shall not comply with the request of the college. I am here, +and here I shall remain. The treatment I have received I consider +infamous. I demand to be let alone. I shall keep on the right side of +the law in the future, as I have done in the past, and I challenge--I +_dare_ the college to touch me. Let me remind you, Mr. Rimington, that +this University has been thrown open--yes, _open_, sir. The old +iniquitous Test Acts have been done away. One man has as much right +here as another. If I am interfered with further, I will raise such a +storm throughout the country, that not only Trinity College but +Cambridge University shall tremble in its shoes. I will wish you +good-morning, sir; and let me advise you to take my words to heart," +and with this Mr. Binney took himself out of his Tutor's rooms, and +went straight round to the Union to write a fiery letter of indignation +to the _Daily Chronicle_, unmasking the unwarrantable interference with +the liberties of the subject practised by the authorities of a +"well-known college in a well-known University." His letter was not +inserted. So the storm he had threatened to raise delayed its raging +for the present. + +After his departure, Mr. Rimington pondered for some time on his course +of action, and then wrote the following letter:-- + + +"DEAR MR. BINNEY,--I enclose the _exeat_ which you will require in +order to enable you to leave Cambridge for the Christmas vacation. I +have dated it for to-morrow. You will, I think, on consideration +regret your manner towards me in our conversation of this morning, and +I shall be glad to receive any expressions of regret you may feel +inclined to make. I must also repeat my statement that it is +subversive of all discipline in the college that a gentleman in your +peculiar position should constitute himself a leader in disorderly +behaviour, and warn you that if such behaviour is persisted in you will +not be allowed to remain here.--Yours sincerely, + + "ROBERT RIMINGTON." + + +"Let 'em try to remove me, that's all," said Mr. Binney, when he +received this very moderate communication. "They'll be sorry for it +all their lives. _Exeat_ dated for to-morrow! What does he mean? I +don't want to go down to-morrow. A piece of impertinence! I shan't +go." + +But on consideration Mr. Binney did go down on the appointed day, and +having arrived at a more reasonable frame of mind after a few days' +residence in Russell Square, wrote to Mr. Rimington that he regretted +that he had been led in the heat of the moment to express himself in a +way he could not justify, and that, while he still stood his stand on a +position which, he thought, would prove to be unassailable, there was +no reason why he and Mr. Rimington should not agree to differ in a +perfectly friendly and gentlemanly way. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ME. BINNEY GIVES A DINNER AND RECEIVES A REBUFF + +Mr. Binney took advantage of his unexpectedly early arrival in town for +the Christmas vacation to pay a surprise visit to Mrs. Higginbotham. +He found that good lady seated by her drawing-room fire as on the +occasion of that momentous visit with the account of which this history +opens. With the glad cry "Peter!" "Martha!" these two ardent souls +were locked in a close embrace, which afforded great gratification to +themselves, and not a little to the parlour-maid, who had delayed her +exit in order to satisfy herself as to the warmth of their greeting. + +"My dear Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham, "I did not expect to see you +for another two days at least. How is it you have managed to come home +for your holidays so early?" + +"We don't have holidays at Cambridge, Martha," said Mr. Binney; "we +call them vacations. And of course we can come away when we like--that +is if the dons will let us." + +"Well, it is a very agreeable surprise to see you, Peter," said Mrs. +Higginbotham. "But how you have altered! Why, you have cut off your +beautiful whiskers!" + +"Yes," said Mr. Binney. "Fellows don't wear whiskers at Cambridge. It +is considered old-fashioned. How do you like the change, Martha?" + +"I don't know," said Mrs. Higginbotham, doubtfully. "But you should +have asked _my_ leave first, you know, Peter, before taking a step like +that," she added, archly. + +Mr. Binney enjoyed this. He became facetious, affected to dig Mrs. +Higginbotham in the ribs, and jocularly cried, "Oh! you saucy little +skipper!" + +Mrs. Higginbotham was scandalised. + +"Peter!" she exclaimed, "surely you forget yourself." + +"Pooh! Martha," said Mr. Binney, "don't be old-fashioned. That's the +way young men go on now-a-days." + +"Is it?" said Mrs. Higginbotham, only half reassured. "I don't think I +much like it. It isn't respectful. But I'm so pleased to see you +back, Peter, that I don't mind _how_ you go on. And you certainly do +look younger, somehow--I suppose it is from cutting off your whiskers. +But do you know I think it makes you look _smaller_ too." + +"Ah!" said Peter, "I used to be sorry I was rather short. I'm not now. +It's a distinct score. I've got a great piece of news for you, Martha. +I'm going to steer the first Lent boat next term, if all goes well. +The first boat captain told me the other day that I was the most useful +man they'd got, if I didn't play the fool and kept my head; he said if +I steered well in the Lents I should probably steer the first boat in +the Mays; and that means, Martha, that next year I shall very likely be +cox of the 'Varsity and get my Blue. Think of that, now!" + +"Lor!" said Mrs. Higginbotham, "And very nice too, I'm sure. But why +are you wearing a tie with the Oxford colours instead of the Cambridge?" + +"Oh dear! Martha!" exclaimed Peter with some irritation. "Will you +_never_ understand these things? These are the First Trinity colours. +Nobody can wear the Cambridge colours unless he's a Blue. And I'm not +a Blue yet." + +"Aren't you?" said Mrs. Higginbotham. "Well, never mind, I'm sure you +will be some day if you do your lessons--I mean your work well, and +satisfy the Professors. And now, Peter, there is one little thing that +I wish to speak to you about. That time you got into trouble. I was +very grieved to hear about that. My poor dear father always used to +say----" + +"Oh, bother your father, Martha!" exclaimed Peter. "What did _he_ know +about life at the 'Varsity? I told you in my letter that nobody at +Cambridge thinks anything of a lark like that except the fusty old +dons--and who cares for what _they_ think?" + +"It isn't polite of you to say, 'bother my father,' Peter," rejoined +Mrs. Higginbotham with some warmth. "He was a very good father to me, +and I never gave him a moment's trouble till the day of his death. I +did think that after the lesson you had received--being locked into +your bedroom every night at eight o'clock as I gathered from your +letter--that you would have seen the folly of such behaviour. But I am +sorry to see from this paper which you sent me the other day, that this +is not the case." + +Mrs. Higginbotham took up from the table at her side one of those +ephemeral journals which come and go at the Universities with almost as +much frequency as the successive generations of undergraduates who +produce them. This one was called _The New Court Chronicle_, and had +been started by one of Mr. Binney's Rugby football acquaintances. In +it was a weekly letter in imitation of those that appear in some of the +London Society papers, and one paragraph ran as follows:-- + +"Millie has come up here for a week to see something of her younger +brother, Arthur, who has entered at Trinity, and is quite a _persona +grata_ with the 'smart' set at that most _chic_ of all the colleges. +He took his brother-in-law to a dinner at Mr. 'Peter' Binney's rooms +one night, and Sir George came away quite charmed with the _verve_ and +_elan_ of his diminutive host. Sir George says that there was not so +much wine drunk as in his days at Cambridge, but what there was, was of +excellent quality and seemed to _go further_. Little Mr. Binney +insisted on making a speech, and caused uproarious merriment by +remarking that he _saw double_ the number of friends he had invited, +but he was pleased to welcome them all, and as many more of the same +sort as liked to come. Owing to the sultriness of the weather, Mr. +Binney was unfortunately seized with a slight indisposition before the +party broke up, but he was comfortably settled in bed by his guests +before they left, and Millie met him in Jesus Lane the next morning +looking as sprightly as ever, and had a short conversation with him, in +which he humorously remarked that he had never turned his back upon don +or devil yet." + +Mrs. Higginbotham opened the paper and pointed to this paragraph. + +"It was indeed a grief to me to read that, Peter," she said, "and how +you could send it me of your own accord passes my comprehension. +Inattention to study I can overlook, and thoughtless levity of conduct +I can pardon--but _drunkenness_! Oh, Peter, I never thought it would +come to _that_." + +Mr. Binney had been getting very red during the passing of this +exordium on his conduct. + +"Pooh, Martha!" he burst out at last. "How could I have known that you +would take it seriously. You don't think all that rubbish is true, do +you? It is all made up and put in for a lark. I sent it to you +because--well, because I thought it would please you to see how popular +and well-known I have become in Cambridge. If you don't like it, throw +it in the fire." + +"But if it is not true, Peter," said Mrs. Higginbotham--"and I'm sure +I'm very much relieved to hear that it is not--why do you allow such +things to be put into a paper? It distinctly says you 'saw double,' +and I have always understood that to be an unfailing sign of--of +_tipsiness_. I call it disgraceful taking away a gentleman's character +like that. Supposing it should come round to Dr. Toller's ears, or +some others of the congregation? And you a deacon, too, and so much +looked up to." + +"Dr. Toller!" echoed Mr. Binney with much scorn. "What do I care for +Dr. Toller? _He's_ not a 'Varsity man; he doesn't understand these +things." + +"He has got a University degree," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "Indeed, +_two_ degrees. He is always put in the bills as Rev. Samuel Toller, +B.A., D.D." + +"That's nothing," said Mr. Binney. "He wasn't at Oxford or Cambridge. +The rest don't count." + +"Oh, don't they! I didn't know," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "But, at any +rate, I shouldn't allow those things to be said of you, Peter, +especially as they are not true. It might get about, and I shouldn't +like that. Now, tell me about some of your speeches at the Young Men's +Christian Association. I am so glad you----" + +"The Union, Martha! The Union!" shouted Mr. Binney, annoyed beyond +bounds at Mrs. Higginbotham's consistent inability to grasp the true +inwardness of University life. + +"Well, the Union then," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "It's the same thing, +isn't it?" + +"No, it's _not_ the same thing," said Mr. Binney, and then he calmed +down and gave Mrs. Higginbotham a full and true account of the building +up of his forensic ambitions, and their sad and disastrous downfall. +Mrs. Higginbotham was full of sympathy and womanly consolation. + +"Ah, Martha," said Mr. Binney at last, "what a treasure I have gained +in your love! My barque will never suffer shipwreck so long as the +haven of your true woman's breast is open to it." + +"I trust not," said Mrs. Higginbotham. "And now let us have tea up. I +expect Annie will have toasted some muffins." + +Lucius arrived home the next afternoon, and brought Dizzy with him for +a few days. The point of view from which he had hitherto regarded his +father had been so rudely altered by Mr. Binney's behaviour during his +first term at Cambridge that Lucius had been unable to face the ordeal +of the first few days alone with him in Russell Square. + +"You know what the governor is, Dizzy," he had said. "It won't be so +bad if you are here for a bit, and we can have a good time. I've got +_some_ money left, although my allowance has been getting smaller and +smaller ever since I came up to Cambridge. We needn't be at home more +than we like, and we can go about a bit and see plays." + +"I should like to come, old man," said Dizzy. "I've got a bit of +splosh laid by, too. I'm an economical beggar and I've let my bills +stand over till next term. We'll have a rare old time. I suppose your +governor won't want to go about with us, will he?" + +"I shouldn't be surprised," said Lucius. "You can never tell what +nonsense he'll be up to now." + +"Oh, well, we must make the best of it, if he does," said Dizzy +cheerfully. "He's not such bad fun if you take him in the right way, +and I can always get on with him very well." + +"He's not your father," said Lucius. + +Dizzy considerately gave thanks inaudibly. + +But when they reached Russell Square they found that a change for the +better had set in in Mr. Binney's behaviour. The responsibilities of a +householder and the head of a large business-house had temporarily +settled down on him again. He went to the City every day for an hour +or two, and spent a good deal of his spare time in the company of Mrs. +Higginbotham, leaving the young men pretty well to their own devices. +He had been brought up to regard theatre going as injurious to the +morals, and, while he did not attempt to prevent Lucius from enjoying +himself in his own way, the remains of an early prejudice prevented his +accompanying him. So Dizzy spent a pleasant week with his friend, and +as he was always cheery and obliging from morning to night, Mr. Binney +was delighted with his company. + +One evening towards the end of Dizzy's visit there was a little +dinner-party in Russell Square. The guests were Mrs. Higginbotham, Dr. +Toller, his wife and daughter, and a sprightly middle-aged lady called +Miss Tupper, who had been a friend of the late Mrs. Binney, whose place +she was generally supposed to be desirous of filling. Mrs. +Higginbotham and she were very cordial to one another when they met, +but there was a delicate sub-acid flavour about their conversation +which hardly seemed in accord with the indelible sweetness of their +respective smiles. + +Mr. Binney sat at the head of the table with Mrs. Toller on his right, +and Mrs. Higginbotham on his left, Lucius at the foot, flanked by Miss +Tupper and Miss Toller. The Reverend Doctor and Dizzy faced one +another. + +"And how do you like University life, Mr. Binney?" inquired Mrs. Toller +sweetly, when her husband had recited an impromptu grace, and infused +as much originality into it as possible, and the company had settled +themselves down to soup and agreeable conversation. + +Mr. Binney, of course, was anxious to talk about Cambridge, but he did +not quite like a question which drew attention to his novice state. + +"Oh, all University men like University life, Mrs. Toller," he replied. +"Though, of course, some are not in a position to appreciate it as much +as others." + +"Oh, Mr. Binney, I'm sure _you_ are in a position to appreciate it," +said Miss Tupper gushingly. + +"I hope I am, Miss Tupper," said Mr. Binney. + +"Who are the people who do _not_ appreciate it?" asked Mrs. Toller. + +This gave Mr. Binney the opportunity he wanted of expatiating on the +prestige to be gained by membership of a good college, and a wide +circle of distinguished athletic acquaintances. Mrs. Toller seemed +much interested and put many questions in a tone of innocent inquiry, +which had the effect of drawing Mr. Binney into a somewhat fuller +account than he would otherwise have given of his manner of life during +the past term. Miss Tupper was enchanted with everything she heard. +She even clapped her hands. + +"Oh, do tell me more, Mr. Binney," she cried. "It is all so _young_. +I simply love to hear about it. Lucius, why don't you back Mr. Binney +up? I believe you are a very wicked boy when you're at college, for +all you are so quiet at home. Oh, fie!" + +Lucius made no reply to this sally. The old feeling towards his father +which had been coming back slowly during the last few days was +disappearing again as the conversation developed, and he ate his dinner +in shamed silence. Miss Tupper became more and more sprightly, but she +devoted herself to Mr. Binney although she was two places away from +him. She was the daughter of a solicitor, while Mrs. Toller's father +had been a bookseller, and she wished to show that lady that the +manners of the upper classes possess a greater breadth and freedom than +those of the people with whom Mrs. Toller had mixed all her life. Mrs. +Higginbotham was very anxious that Mr. Binney should not give Dr. +Toller reason to suppose that his habits had become at all loose during +his short residence at Cambridge, and tried to bring the conversation +down to the more sober aspects of University life, but the Doctor was +enjoying a very good dinner and was inclined to be tolerant. He even +told some anecdotes of his own salad days when he had been a student at +Homerton College, but the mild devilry of his proceedings took such a +long time to narrate, and amounted to so very little when it was +reduced to speech, that his anecdotes fell very flat. Mrs. +Higginbotham gave them rather more than their due share of +appreciation, but Mr. Binney listened with ill-concealed impatience, +and instantly capped each story with a much more highly-spiced one of +his own, while Miss Tupper actually had the temerity to snub the great +man, which exasperated his wife to such an extent that she half made up +her mind to bring her unseemly conduct before the next church meeting. + +Under cover of this conversation Dizzy had been trying to get on terms +with his neighbour. Miss Toller was very young and very shy, but +undoubtedly pretty. Dizzy, that discriminating critic of feminine +beauty, had run his eye cursorily over her upon his first appearance. +"Pity she ain't turned out properly," he had said to Lucius. "She's +worth it. I should like to get her a proper evening frock instead of +that dowdy thing, and take her somewhere to get her hair waved. I +could turn her into a regular topper in no time. Give her a few +lessons on how to walk, and teach her to hold her hands properly and +you wouldn't know her when I'd finished with her." + +"Shouldn't want to; you'd only spoil her," said Lucius. "She's a nice +enough little thing as it is. I've danced with her at children's +parties ever since I can remember." + +"Come now," said Dizzy, "you wouldn't like to see the Newnham beauty +turned out like that of an evening." + +"That's different," said Lucius, with a blush. + +Poor little Miss Toller would have sunk into the earth with shame if +she had heard herself thus discussed. This was her first dinner-party +end she had looked forward to it with tremulous but pleasurable +anticipation. She was going to meet Lucius, and Lucius had always +stood for her as an embodiment of everything that was worthy of +admiration in the opposite sex. She had recently been put in command +of her own small dress allowance, and had expended a good part of her +quarter's income on the frock that Dizzy had criticised so +contemptuously. Lucius had not taken so much notice of her as she had +expected, considering that they had been friends all their lives; and +he seemed unhappy! Poor boy! With feminine intuition she instantly +divined something of the state of things that existed between him and +his father. Hitherto she had regarded Mr. Binney with that respect due +to his age and his standing in her father's congregation. Suddenly she +found herself hating and despising him with a fervour that surprised +even herself, and she would have given anything she possessed, even her +new frock, to be able to console Lucius without appearing to understand +why he was so downcast. Lucius spoke very little to her, although she +sat next to him, and she was too shy to address him first; but now she +had to collect her wits and cope with the embarrassing young man who +sat on her left, who seemed more at ease than she could possibly have +conceived any young man being in the awe-inspiring surroundings of a +set dinner-party, and who spoke and behaved in quite a different manner +from anybody she had ever met before. + +"Oysters!" began Dizzy, as an opening to conversation. "I don't know +whether you know that if you eat a dozen oysters and drink a +wine-glassful of brandy after them, you die." + +Miss Toller had never eaten oysters in her life, nor drunk brandy +except under strong maternal pressure for medicinal purposes, but she +looked rather frightened. "Do you?" she said. + +"Yes," said Dizzy, "the brandy turns the oysters into leather. +Leather's the most indigestible thing you can swallow, although of +course nobody would swallow it if they could help it. But the funny +part of it is, that if you eat a piece of cheese the size of a +walnut--I don't know why _walnut_ particularly--it melts the leather +and then you are all right." + +Miss Toller thought this information a trifle indelicate, but made no +comment on it, except the tacit one of leaving her oysters untasted. + +"Been to any plays lately?" inquired Dizzy. + +"No," said Miss Toller, "my father doesn't approve of theatres." + +"Doesn't he?" said Dizzy. "Quite right too. I'm sure the nonsense +that's put on the stage now and called a play is enough to make you +ill. And then they talk about dramatic art! Why, there's more art in +a Punch and Judy show. Lucius and I have been going the rounds for the +last week, and I'm hanged if I want to go and see another play till I'm +seventy. Louie Freer's the only artist among the whole lot of 'em. +Ever heard her sing 'Mary Jane's Top Note'? Oh, no, I forgot. You +don't care for theatres. But you should have seen Lucius at the A.D.C. +He was only a maid-servant--but _such_ a maid-servant. He had letters +from all the Registry Offices in Cambridge offering him situations. +Every Sunday out and as many followers as he liked. Didn't you, +Lucius?" + +"He's talking nonsense, Nesta," said Lucius. "He always will talk +whether he's got anything to say or not." + +"But did you dress up as a maid-servant, Lucius?" asked the girl. + +"He did," said Dizzy, "and his waist was twenty-two inches round. His +name was Mary." But here Mr. Stubbs's attention was demanded by his +other neighbour, Mrs. Toller, who had learnt enough of Mr. Binney's +late doings to satisfy her for the present, and had caught a few scraps +of the conversation addressed to her daughter, and thought it a trifle +free. + +"And what may you be going to do, Mr. Stubbs, when you leave college?" +she asked with a slight touch of asperity. + +"Well, 'pon my word, I don't know," replied Dizzy, who may have been a +little surprised at the directness of the inquiry, but didn't show it. +"I leave all that sort of thing to my old father, you know. He's got +plenty of ideas on the subject, but he changes 'em about once a month. +I fall in with 'em all and give 'em up directly the new one comes +along. It keeps him out of mischief, having something to think about, +and it don't hurt me. I think it's the Church just at present--or is +it brewing? No, brewing was last term. My old father read in the +papers that the country spends more money on its drink bills than on +anything else, so he thought that if I was put in a position to enable +me to receipt a few of 'em, it wouldn't be a bad thing. However, he +gave up the idea for some reason or other, and now we're turning our +attention to the Church." + +"And do you feel that you have any vocation for the ministry?" asked +Mrs. Toller. + +"Oh! I shall rub along all right," said Dizzy. "I've an old uncle +who's got several livings in his gift. He'll give me one if I want it, +I dare say. There's one up in Lincolnshire,--not much money, but a +nice house, and five hundred acres of rough shooting--you don't often +get that sort of thing with a rectory nowadays--and only about fifty +people in the parish. I shouldn't mind going there, and I dare say I +could if I wanted to. My old uncle's place is in the next parish, and +I could have a very good time." + +Mrs. Toller listened with inward disapproval, but the mention of +Dizzy's uncle with his patronage and his "place" disarmed her rancour, +she being as arrant a snob as ever walked, and she said with much +sweetness: + +"Don't you think, Mr. Stubbs, that the system of patronage adopted by +the Established Church is a little--what shall I say?--a little--" + +"I _do_," said Dizzy with warmth. "I quite agree with you. I think +it's perfectly monstrous. Now, look at my old uncle--well, perhaps I +oughtn't to let out family secrets--but I assure _you_ that for that +old man to be able to present people to livings--though, mind you, he's +a very nice old man, and I've nothing to say against him--well, upon my +word, it's enough to make you turn Particular Baptist or +something--never quite know why Baptists should be more particular than +anybody else---oh, I _beg_ your pardon, Mrs. Toller--'pon my word I +forgot we weren't of the same way of thinking--clumsy beggar, always +putting my foot in it--but you're not what they call a _Particular_ +Baptist, are you?" + +"Certainly not," said Mrs. Toller. "The Particular Baptists were----" + +"Quite so. Yes, I remember. And I know, of course, that Dr. Toller is +a most distinguished leader of religious thought--_everybody_ knows +that. I ought to have remembered that he didn't happen to belong to +the same Church as I do--stupid of me. But, you know, the truth of it +is, Mrs. Toller, that when a man gets up to the top of the tree, well, +he may be Archbishop of Canterbury, or a Cardinal or--or a man like +your husband, and to a fellow like me who don't follow these things +very closely, well, there isn't much difference, don't you know." + +"You feel that, do you?" said Mrs. Toller, much gratified. "Of course +_we_ think so; but church people are usually so bigoted. I'm sure it's +a great pleasure to meet a member of the Establishment who is so +broad-minded." + +Dizzy felt that he had completely retrieved his error, and proceeded to +amplify his ideas. + +"I think it's such rot being narrow-minded, don't you know," he said. +"Look at the Buddhists. They're just as good as we are. I knew a +fellow once who became one. He was fond of a good glass of wine. He +had to knock _that_ off, and become a teetotaller. He liked shooting, +but he had to give it up, because he said he couldn't take life--he +never had taken much before, but he used to hit 'em sometimes by +mistake, and he didn't want to run any risks. Of course, he didn't eat +meat. Then he hadn't been married very long, and there was a baby he +was very fond of. He began to bring that up as a Buddhist too, and fed +it on apples and filbert nuts. Don't know what his wife was doing all +the time, but it died in a month. _He_ didn't care. He just went on. +Now, that's what I call religion, you know, and I should admire that +fellow just as much if he were a Mormon or whatever he was. Wouldn't +you?" + +Mrs. Toller was not prepared to go quite so far as that, but she went +part of the way, and went very amiably. + +"I suppose you have never heard my husband preach, have you, Mr. +Stubbs?" she asked. + +"No, I haven't," said Dizzy. "And it's a funny thing, because I've +been in London a good deal. It's the people who come up from the +country who see and hear everything that's going on. Now, you wouldn't +credit it, but I've actually never been to the Zoo." + +Mrs. Toller did not quite see the connection of ideas, but her +amiability did not decrease. + +"He preached a very fine sermon last Sunday," she said, "on 'The +Municipal Duties of an Enlightened Electorate.' The papers were full +of it. The _Daily Chronicle_ said it was 'an epoch-making sermon.'" + +"I can quite believe that," said Dizzy. "If a man talks sense in the +pulpit people will listen to him. If he talks nonsense they won't." + +"That is so true," said Mrs. Toller, and felt quite sorry when the time +came for the ladies to leave the table, for Dizzy had by this time +completely wiped out the memory of his little slip. + +Driving home after the entertainment was over Mrs. Toller laid down the +law. + +"Mr. Binney seems to have been behaving very foolishly at Cambridge," +she said. "I gathered something of the sort from Mrs. Higginbotham, +and wished to find out if it was true. I could see that she was +ashamed of the nonsense he talked at dinner, and I felt for her, poor +thing. I shall go and see her to-morrow and tell her so. The way Miss +Tupper egged him on was disgraceful. She ought to be ashamed of +herself, at her age, too. If I were you, I should allude to it in your +prayer on Sunday, Samuel. It will not seem so pointed as if you were +to do it in the sermon, and there is never any telling what Miss Tupper +may do. She might leave the chapel altogether if she is offended, and +if she once took to going to church she'd give herself such airs that +there'd be no holding her." + +"I think Mr. Binney is a very silly little man," said Miss Toller +vindictively. "I believe he is making poor Lucius miserable." + +"Nesta!" exclaimed Mrs. Toller, astonished at this outburst from her +usually submissive daughter, "I cannot allow you to speak like that of +your elders. Mr. Binney is one of your father's greatest supporters. +Pray express yourself with more respect. And as for Lucius--I've no +patience with him. I've gone out of my way to be kind to that boy, and +he shows no more gratitude than if I was a mere nobody--hardly troubled +himself to answer when I asked him how he was getting on with his +studies, and actually turned his back upon me when I began to give him +a little advice about the temptations of University life. Now if he +were like that nice young Mr. Stubbs it would be different. Stubbs is +not a genteel name, but I believe he is very well connected, and he +certainly has a well-bred manner of speaking. Samuel, I have asked him +to come with us and hear you preach on Sunday evening. He said nothing +would please him better. He has never been in a Nonconformist place of +worship, and he will certainly come if he is still in town. I should +be careful what I said about the Establishment if I were you. I should +like him to carry away a good impression of your preaching." + +"I'll be sure and remember it, my dear," said Dr. Toller drowsily from +his corner of the carriage. "Nesta, dear, write a note for me when we +get home--'Mr. Stubbs--no rubs.' Then I shan't disgrace myself." The +Reverend Dr. Toller cultivated his small gift of humour; he found it +necessary in order to live comfortably with his wife. + +Dizzy took his departure the next morning, but not before a very +painful scene had occurred in Russell Square. The _Times_ which graced +Mr. Binney's breakfast table, and was now eagerly searched each morning +for news of the Little-go examination, at last published the list. Mr. +Binney's name was not in it. + +Dizzy came down to find a dejected figure sitting at the head of the +table, while the disregarded urn which had filled the teapot and +flooded the tea-tray was beginning to flow over the surrounding tract +of tablecloth. As he entered the room Mr. Binney bounded from his seat +with a yell of pain, and turned off the tap. The physical anguish of +the moment diverted his mind from the mental shock he had undergone, +but the numbing realisation of failure soon settled on him again. +"Stubbs!" he said mournfully, "it is all over. I shall never hold up +my head again." + +"Lor, Mr. Binney!" exclaimed Dizzy. "It can't be so bad as that, is +it? Shall I ring for a servant to bring a cloth and mop it up?" + +"It isn't that," said Mr. Binney, with the calm born of despair. "I +have failed to pass the Previous examination. I am a disgraced man." + +"Oh, that's all, is it?" said Dizzy, helping himself to devilled +kidneys off the side table. "I thought you'd scalded yourself. Why, +bless my soul, I knew a fellow who had eight shots at the Little-go and +didn't pass it then. I had three goes myself, and here I am as merry +as a cricket." + +"Ah, you are young!" said Mr. Binney. "You've got your life before +you. I shall never get over it." + +Nevertheless he did get over it, and the failure did him good. He went +to Mrs. Higginbotham and confessed all. He saw now, he said, that he +had wasted his time and opportunities. He had consorted with idle and +graceless companions, and made himself a reproach to the authorities of +the college. He had brought this appalling result on himself, and he +deserved it. + +Mrs. Higginbotham gave the repentant prodigal full absolution. She +advised him to write to Mr. Rimington, and promise full amendment of +his ways. Mr. Binney did not take her advice in this particular, but +he did summon to his aid the learned Minshull, and set himself steadily +to read for several hours a day during the Christmas vacation in order +to make up for lost time. Lucius found the house very dull. An +unexpected invitation from his cousin John Jermyn's mother came for him +to spend the week after Christmas at the Norfolk Rectory, but +remembering his cousin John he did not feel attracted, and receiving +another invitation the day after to the ancestral home of the Stubbses +he accepted that, and refused the other. He went up to Cambridge +early, for there was a chance of his rowing in the University boat, and +he wanted to keep a term before going to Putney, if he should be +fortunate enough to be wanted there; so he saw next to nothing of his +father for the remainder of the vacation. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"THE NEW COURT CHRONICLE" + +Mr. Binney embarked on his second term at Cambridge with the full +intention of acquitting himself with credit and freeing his character +from the suspicion of unruliness which had unfortunately become +attached to it. He was very much in earnest about his work, and mapped +out a course of arduous study which was to be continued right up to the +following June, when he hoped to make up for his first failure by +taking a high class in both parts of the Little-go. The Union he was +determined to let severely alone. His pride had had a severe rebuff +from the indignity which had been put upon him in the elections. "They +can do without _me_," said Mr. Binney to his fellow-aspirant, M'Gee. +"Very well, then, I will show them that I can do without _them_." + +"Toch! man, have another try," said the indomitable M'Gee. "Rome +wasn't built in a day." But he said it without enthusiasm, for the +path to success, according to his ideas, did not lie through the +follies and extravagances to which Mr. Binney had treated his audience +during the previous term. + +"I shall never speak at the Union again, M'Gee," said Mr. Binney +firmly. And he kept his word. + +He was a little troubled as to what course he should adopt with Howden +and the rest of his athletic friends. He did not want to drop them +altogether, but he wanted to make it clearly understood that the open +restaurant which he had previously conducted for their benefit was now +closed, and he had a suspicion that its closing might mean the +discontinuance of their favour, and a consequent loss of prestige to +himself. He gave a dinner on the second evening of the term, or +perhaps it would be more correct to say that Howden, who professed +himself delighted to meet his old friend once more after five weeks' +absence, gave it for him in his rooms, and Mr. Binney paid the bill. +It was quite as noisy as any that had gone before it, but Mr. Binney +did not add to the gaiety. He made a speech in the course of the +evening--he was rather fond of making speeches--in which he informed +his friends that he was about to embark on a severe course of study and +found he would not be able to have the pleasure of entertaining them +quite so often as before on account of the time that was thrown away +over these festivities. What he said was cheered to the echo, which +gratified him not a little, but Howden, who followed him, did not +appear to have taken his remarks in the least seriously, and assured +him in a voice broken with emotion, that they would all stick by him +and never forsake him. This was not quite what Mr. Binney wanted, but +Howden's affecting periods caused such an outburst of enthusiasm that +he succumbed to the general goodwill and allowed the matter to stand +over for the present. + +On the next afternoon, however, it was decided for him. He was sitting +over his books for an hour before hall when he received a call from +Mirrilees, the Captain of the First Trinity Boat Club. Mirrilees was +an acquaintance of whom Mr. Binney might reasonably have been proud if +he had ever shown the slightest wish to have anything to do with our +hero apart from his official position as captain of the boat club to +which Mr. Binney belonged. He was tall and well set up, a really fine +oar and a thoroughly good fellow in the best sense of that misused +term. He was not everybody's friend, even in the exceedingly tolerant +atmosphere of undergraduate Cambridge, and athletes of the type of +Howden disliked him, and said so freely; but Mr. Binney had kept his +own opinion on this point, and if there was one man in Cambridge whom +he respected with all the force of the hero-worship which was a part of +his still undeveloped character, it was Mirrilees. He therefore rose +to his feet, and showed by his nervousness of manner that he fully +appreciated the honour done to him. + +Mirrilees sat down on the sofa and refused the proffered suggestion of +refreshment. His keen eyes glanced round the room and then rested on +Mr. Binney. + +"I told you last term," he said, "that we might want you to steer the +first Lent boat. You're a light weight and you've got a head on your +shoulders. At least you haven't lost it yet on the river, although you +seem to have done so occasionally elsewhere." + +What Mr. Binney suffered at that instant in the way of remorse is +beyond description. This was a very different thing to Mr. Rimington's +strictures on his conduct. He made no reply, but hung his head. + +"Now I've come to offer you the place----" Mr. Binney revived a +little--"but on certain conditions. I am not going to have the cox of +any boat I've got anything to do with making himself more ridiculous +than he is by nature. We shall be laughed at, of course, for having a +man of your age in the boats at all. I don't mind that as long as +that's all there is to laugh at. What I'm not going to stand is your +making yourself the butt and crony of every drunken rowdy in Cambridge. +I say what I've got to say perfectly straight as captain of the club to +one of its members who may turn out useful to it. If you lay it to +heart and don't take offence I shall have done what I wanted to do. If +you don't like such plain speaking, say so, and I'll clear out, and we +need never speak to one another again." + +Mr. Binney's choler had shown signs of rising during this very plain +and unvarnished statement of the light in which Mirrilees regarded him, +but the hint with which the address had closed brought it down again. + +"I don't take offence," he said slowly, "though I'm not used to--to----" + +"Well, perhaps I put it a bit too strong," said Mirrilees, "but if I +were you I shouldn't have anything more to do with Howden and that lot. +I hear that they were all here last night again as usual, and that's +why I'm talking to you now. They're only sponging on you and making +you appear a fool all the time. If you steer the first Lent boat this +term--and mind, though I make no promises, that's intended to mean the +first May boat _next_ term--you'll have to train with the rest, and +that will mean knocking off all these diversions; and you'll find +plenty of good chaps in the boat club without running after +footballers, amongst whom you can't exactly expect to shine." + +"I'm very grateful to you, Mirrilees, for your kind advice," said Mr. +Binney. "I shall certainly take it, and you may rely upon me to do my +best for the honour of the club." + +"That's all right then," said Mirrilees, rising. "Walters is captain +of your boat, as you know, but I thought I'd just come round and settle +things up. Good-night!" + +Outside in the darkness of Jesus Lane, Mirrilees smiled continuously. +"Good Lord!" he said to himself. "Fancy talking like that to the +father of one of your pals! But it was the only way, and I thought +he'd stand it somehow. I rather fancy I've done Lucy a good turn. But +I hope he'll never know." + +He left Mr. Binney in a fervour of amended ambitions. What a grand +thing it would be to have a friend like Mirrilees, a man whom most +people turned round to look at if they passed him in the street, a man +who had already rowed two years in the University boat and would +probably row two years more before he left Cambridge, a man whose name +was known all over England. Why, it was almost as good as knowing +Muttlebury or Guy Nickalls. Lucius knew him, of course, lucky young +beggar. He wondered whether it was worth while making another attempt +to make acquaintances through his son, but the memory of Blathgowrie +and others deterred him, for Lucius's friends were not all Mirrilees's, +and he made up his mind to deserve the great man's favour by a +brilliant career as a cox, and extreme carefulness as to his behaviour +both on the river and away from it. + +And so for the best part of that term Mr. Binney's behaviour was +irreproachable. He never missed a lecture or an appointment with his +Coach, and the amount of work he got through in the privacy of his +rooms was little short of marvellous. He was on the river, of course, +every afternoon, and suffered greatly from the exposure to the cold as +he sat in his narrow seat, fumbling with numbed hands at the rudder +lines, and was carried swiftly along by the combined exertions of the +eight stalwart men who faced him. His appearance always caused some +merriment on the tow-path, and the town urchins were a great trial to +him with their coarse banter, but the men of the First Trinity Boat +Club, as a rule, treated him with the respect due to his years, and, if +they did show a slight disinclination to walk up from the boats with +him, or to admit him into very close intimacy with them, he made up his +mind to bear the deprivation, trusting that it would disappear in time, +rather than fall again into the mistake he had made in trying to force +himself upon Blathgowrie and his friends. As for Howden, there was not +so much trouble with him as Mr. Binney had expected. For one thing, he +played Rugby football regularly for the University, and, although no +such arduous course of training is expected from a football player as +is necessary in the case of an oarsman, still a continuous course of +hilarious dinners is not regarded with favour by those in authority, +and Howden did not apply so often as before for sustenance at Mr. +Binney's table. Mr. Binney also conceived the idea of employing Howden +himself to keep his friends off him. He got him to talk about his +financial troubles one morning, a subject which he had before +instinctively avoided. Howden was nothing loth, and poured out a +dismal tale of debts and duns. Mr. Binney then afforded him temporary +pecuniary relief, and asked, as a favour, that Howden should inform his +friends that he, Mr. Binney, was very busy this term and would not be +able to see quite so much of them as before. Howden accepted the +responsibility, and discharged it satisfactorily, and Mr. Binney was +left in peace to carry out his reformation. + +But, alas! the old proverb still holds true: "Give a dog a bad name and +hang him." Mr. Binney was now an exemplary character, but nobody would +believe it. When his guests left his rooms after the evening already +alluded to, they got into trouble with the Proctors. It was the usual +offence of smoking in cap and gown, but Howden added to it by running +away from avenging justice. Neither Proctor nor Bull-dogs could hope +to equal him at that game, so they made no attempt to enter into +competition, but entered up his name, which was perfectly familiar to +all three of them, instead. So the only thing Howden got by his little +sprint was the exercise, which he did not require, and a double fine +the next morning, which he could ill afford to pay. His escapade also +came to the ears of his tutor, Mr. Rimington. He would not have taken +notice of such a comparatively slight offence, if such offences had not +been of frequent occurrence with Howden. As it was, he sent for him +and talked to him, and then it came out that Howden had been dining +with Mr. Binney. It will be remembered that Mr. Rimington had +expostulated with Mr. Binney on the last day of the previous term, and +this occurrence had taken place on the second day of the present term. +Mr. Rimington may therefore be excused for coming to the conclusion +that his expostulations had had very little effect, and that Mr. Binney +was proceeding on the reckless career which had made him such a +nuisance to those responsible for the order of the college. He said +nothing on this occasion, but continued to regard Mr. Binney with +feelings of strong disfavour. + +Mr. Binney might have lived down his reputation in time had it not been +artificially sustained for him by the journal to which we have already +referred, the _New Court Chronicle_. The editor of that enterprising +publication had found that Mr. Binney's eccentricities made very good +copy for him in the previous term, and confidently looked forward to +keeping up his circulation by exploiting our hero to a considerable +extent as long as his paper should continue to run. He had had an +altercation with Lucius one night in the Great Court upon one of those +occasions when two factions meet and mutually disagree, and although, +or probably because, he had been in the wrong, the editor of the _New +Court Chronicle_ bore Lucius a grudge and was not above paying it off +by ridiculing his father. He had also been one of the band whom Howden +had frequently invited to partake of Mr. Binney's hospitality, with +which he had made so free that Mr. Binney had decided that in his case +at least he would give the cold shoulder himself and not entrust the +work entirely to Howden. The journalistic gentleman had not taken this +very kindly, and a flavour of malice had crept into his witticisms, +where before there had only been good-humoured chaff. As Mr. Binney +gave him very little occasion now for humorous writing, he allowed +himself a freer hand, and invented stories against him instead of +merely repeating them. + +In order to provide a fitting framework for his humour, he published +each week a correspondence between Mr. Binney in Cambridge and an +imaginary mother in London, in which the former recounted his exploits, +and the latter commented upon them. The idea was carried out with some +humour and proved to be an acceptable feature of the paper. +Unfortunately the editor had hit upon the name of "Martha" for Mr. +Binney's supposed mother, and her letters were not so unlike Mrs. +Higginbotham's in style as quite to relieve Mr. Binney of the suspicion +that the story of his wooing of that good woman had reached Cambridge. +The only two people who could possibly be suspected of divulging it +were Lucius and Dizzy, and after the issue of the first instalment he +went angrily round to his son's rooms to see if the offence could be +brought home to him. Lucius was out, but seated comfortably in his +armchair and smoking one of his cigars was Dizzy, who must have been +the culprit, if Lucius were not, thought Mr. Binney. + +"Ah, Mr. Binney, pleased to see you again," said Dizzy genially. "How +are you feeling! Pretty toll-lollish?" + +"No, Stubbs, I am not feeling particularly 'toll-lollish' just at +present--I thank you all the same," said Mr. Binney severely. "I don't +know whether this publication has come to your notice yet?" Mr. Binney +put a copy of the _New Court Chronicle_ on the table, which Dizzy took +up and glanced through with interest. + +"It ain't bad," he said, "though it's got up by a set of rotters. +Hullo, what's this--something about you, Mr. Binney, eh?" + +"Yes, sir," said Mr. Binney angrily, "and a most scurrilous piece of +work it is. My dear mother, sir, has lain in her grave these twenty +years. It is a scandalous thing that contempt should be poured on her +memory in this indecent fashion." + +"It is," said Dizzy warmly. "A most preposterous thing! I quite agree +with you. These fellows ought to be kicked, every one of them. And if +they treated my old mater in that way I'd--I'd pay somebody to do it." + +"But that is not all, sir," continued Mr. Binney. "I don't know +whether you recollect meeting a lady of the name of Higginbotham at my +table?" + +"Mrs. Higginbotham!" exclaimed Dizzy. "Why, of course I do. And a +most engaging old lady she was too. Don't know when I've met a nicer." + +"I'm obliged for your good opinion sir," said Mr. Binney stiffly, +"although I confess the idea of Mrs. Higginbotham as an _old_ lady is a +new one to me. You are probably aware that her Christian name is +Martha." + +"First I've heard of it," said Dizzy, "but it's an excellent name. I +had an old aunt called Martha, and I thought she was going to leave me +a lot of money; but she didn't." + +"You are _sure_ that you didn't know that Mrs. Higginbotham's name was +Martha?" asked Mr. Binney suspiciously. + +"'Pon my word I hadn't the slightest idea of it, Mr. Binney," said +Dizzy. "I shouldn't have had a word to say if you'd told me it was +Mary. But why do you ask?" + +"Never mind," said Mr. Binney. "If you give me your word of honour as +a gentleman that the fact is new to you, I accept your assurance, and +there let the matter end. Here is Lucius. I should like to have a +word alone with him, if you will permit me, Stubbs." + +"Certainly," said the obliging Dizzy, rising instantly. "Come round +and give me a look in presently, Lucy. I'll take another of those +weeds of yours if I may." + +When he had got outside, Mr. Binney turned to his son, with, "Now, sir, +what is the meaning of this?" + +Lucius glanced at the paper to which his father pointed. + +"Oh, I've read the rubbish," he said wearily. "It makes me sick." + +"Read it," said Mr. Binney. "Yes, I've no doubt you've read it, sir. +What I should like to know is how much you wrote of it." + +"I don't know what you mean," said Lucius. "I've had quite enough mud +thrown at me since you've been up here, father. It isn't likely I +should take to throwing it at myself." + +"Don't prevaricate, sir," said Mr. Binney, his voice rising. "Did you +write it, or did you not?" + +"I'm not going to answer such a ridiculous question," said Lucius +sulkily. + +"Then I will answer it for you," said Mr. Binney. "You _did_ write it. +I know you have always nourished evil feelings against that excellent +woman Martha Higginbotham, who I hope will one day do you the honour of +becoming your mother. Not content with wreaking your unfilial spite +against your own father who begat you, you must smirch the good name of +a lady who has always loaded you with kindness. Out upon such conduct, +I say." + +Lucius held his head in his hands. "I suppose I shall understand it +all soon," he said. "At present it sounds like one of Dr. Toller's +sermons. Is there anything about you and Mrs. Higginbotham in the +advertisements, father? I've read all the rest of the rag and I don't +remember her name being mentioned." + +"What is that name, sir?" asked Mr. Binney, pointing to the signature +of his imaginary mother's letters. + +"Martha Binney," read Lucius. + +"Yes, Martha Binney," echoed his father. "And in two years and a half +from now, Martha Higginbotham will change her name for Martha Binney, +if we're both spared." + +"It'll be a change for the better then, as far as she's concerned," +said Lucius. "But what _are_ you driving at, father? You can't really +think I wrote that or had anything to do with it. I'm not such a scug +as all that." + +"And pray who else up here but you knows that Mrs. Higginbotham's name +is Martha?" inquired Mr. Binney. "That's my point." + +"Well, I don't think it's much of a point," said Lucius. "It's a +fluke, their happening to hit upon that name. But, look here, can't +you stop this sort of thing? It's really awful the way things are +going on. I don't suppose there's anybody ever been up here who's had +such a miserable time as I'm having. Other fellows respect their +fathers. You simply don't give me a chance." + +This touched Mr. Binney to the quick. He was very susceptible to +criticism since Mirrilees had spoken to him so plainly. "I'm afraid I +have given you some reason to say that, my boy," he said. "I--I was +led away last term. I was under a wrong impression of what was the +thing and what wasn't the thing. But that is all changed now. I have +become a reading man and a boating man. I have turned the page on +everything else." + +"There was that dinner with Howden and the rest of them the very night +after we came up," said Lucius. + +"It was the last dinner that Howden will get out of me," said Mr. +Binney. "I have done with him--at least I hope so." + +"Well, then, there's some hope," said Lucius. "And, look here, father, +if you've really given up that sort of thing there's a much better +chance of your getting on with the fellows worth knowing. I shouldn't +take any notice of that business, if I were you. It will die down in +time. Would you care to come to lunch to-morrow? Mirrilees is coming. +He's a good chap, you'll like to meet him." + +"Oh, I know him well. He was in my rooms a few days ago," said Mr. +Binney. "But I should like to meet him again very much. Yes, I'll +come, Lucius," and Mr. Binney went away feeling that the reward of good +behaviour had already come, in spite of the _New Court Chronicle_. + +But, alas! Mr. Binney's reputation proved harder matter to live down +than he had anticipated. The men whom he met on the river fought +rather shy of him, for to tell the truth, there was very little to +recommend the poor little gentleman as a companion for youth if he was +to be taken seriously as he now seemed to desire. Howden and Co. had +only put up with him because of his dinners, and because, at the time +he had consorted with them, he had apparently not objected to being +made the butt of their not over-refined pleasantries. He now led a +very dull and dejected life, but his work kept him employed, and the +prospects of his boat in the Lent races gave him something to look +forward to with keen expectation. The First Trinity first Lent boat +had fallen to the fourth place on the river, but this year it was by +far the best crew practising, with the possible exception of the head +boat. It was expected to make its first three bumps with comparative +ease, and to row an exciting race with Trinity Hall in the last night +of the races for the head place on the river. Whenever Mr. Binney felt +inclined to get down-hearted at the thought of his unpopularity he +would buoy himself up with the anticipation of the glory that would +accrue to him if his hopes were realised. + +Unfortunately the editor of the _New Court Chronicle_ found his +journalistic ingenuity increasing with practice, and spent such pains +over "The Binney Correspondence," that that feature of his paper soon +became the talk of Cambridge. After the third number Mr. Binney wrote +him a letter of expostulation, which he published with appropriate +comment, but of which he took no further notice. That week's +instalment of the Correspondence contained an account from "Your +repentant son, Peter Binney," of how he had been asked to dine with the +Vice-Chancellor, had disgraced himself by drinking too much wine, and +had been escorted home by the two Esquire Bedells with their silver +pokers, while he raised the town with a spirited rendering of "Rule +Britannia." Mrs. Binney, the mother, expressed herself heart-broken at +the news, and announced her intention of coming up to Cambridge to +implore the Vice-Chancellor to overlook the offence, and give her +erring boy another chance. She also alluded to her grand-daughter +Lucy, who was supposed to be studying at Girton College. "She is a +good girl," wrote the old lady, "and would be ashamed to carry on in +the way you do, Peter, but the dear child tells me she wishes she had +been sent to Newnham College. She likes the students there so much +better." + +Poor little Mr. Binney went round to his son's rooms almost in tears. +He found Lucius still more angry than himself, for, although his +admiration of the Newnham girl was well known among his immediate +friends, and he did not take a mild degree of chaff on the subject at +all ill, the vulgar publicity now given to it goaded him to the verge +of desperation. + +"Oh, it's you, father," he said. "I'm going round to that fellow Piper +to tell him if this business isn't stopped I'll knock his teeth down +his throat." + +"Ah, Lucius," said Mr. Binney plaintively. "I wish I was big and +strong like you. I'd have done that long ago. But you're a good boy +to stick up for your poor father. I'm going to increase your allowance +by L10 for asking me to lunch to meet Mirrilees, and if you get these +disgraceful attacks stopped I'll add another L20. You'll get back to +the old figure if you're careful, and even beyond it." + +"Thanks, father," said Lucius, "but I don't want paying for doing a +thing like that. I've got a little score of my own against Mr. Piper, +and I'm going to pay it off now." And Lucius took up his cap and left +the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"PUT HIM IN THE FOUNTAIN" + +Mr. Binney had wished he was big and strong like his son. As a matter +of fact Lucius was quite a light weight, and although wiry and in good +condition, it was certain that he was quite incapable of fulfilling his +threat of knocking Piper's teeth down his throat, unless Piper allowed +him to do so without making any resistance, which was unlikely. Piper +was a great heavy lump of bone and muscle, over six feet high, and +quite as fit as Lucius, for the latter had been finally rejected for +the University boat, for this year at least, and had gone out of +training, while Piper was still playing football. These considerations +did occur to Lucius as he walked from his own rooms to those where +Piper carried on his editorial functions, but he was so angry that they +carried little weight with them. In the New Court he met Dizzy. + +"Come up here with me," he said. "I've got a little job on." + +Dizzy followed him up the staircase to Piper's rooms, talking volubly, +as was his wont; but Lucius gave him no answer. + +Piper was discovered sitting at his table talking to Howden, who stood +with his back to the mantel-piece. + +Lucius plunged into his business without any preface. + +"Look here, sir," he said, "I've come about this stuff you've been +printing about me and my father. I'll trouble you to stop it, if you +don't mind." + +Piper's face darkened. He was a bad-tempered man. He was also a +clever man, and having no reason to be alarmed at any possible violence +on Lucius's part, which he would rather have welcomed than otherwise, +he thought he might as well draw him into a battle of words and afford +his intellect some little amusement. So he choked down his temper and +said quietly: + +"You are Mr. Binney, junior, I believe. You are not mentioned from one +end of the paper to the other, except as having had the chuck from the +'Varsity boat, and I don't see you've any reason to complain of that." + +"That's a lie," said Lucius instantly. Piper started from his chair, +but sat down again and waited. "You know perfectly well," continued +Lucius hotly, "that that rot about Lucy and Girton is meant for me, and +even if it wasn't I object to your making fun of my father." + +This was what Piper wanted. "Is the other Binney your father?" he said +with a sneer. "I didn't know it. If I had a father like that I'd +drown him." + +Lucius made a dash forward, and Piper stood up with an evil smile on +his face. But Stubbs caught hold of his friend and pulled him back, +and Howden stepped forward. + +"Oh, come now, Pips!" expostulated he, "don't overdo it, old man." + +But Piper took no notice. He suddenly lost all control over his temper. + +"What the devil do you mean by coming blustering here?" he shouted. +"Get out of my rooms this minute or I'll throw you out of the window. +Yes, you'd better keep him back, you putty-faced swab"--this to +Dizzy--"if he comes near me I'll put some marks on him that he won't +lose in a hurry." + +Lucius shook off Dizzy's encircling grasp. + +"Will you stop printing lies about me and my father?" he said. + +"I won't stop anything," rejoined Piper. + +"Then will you fight?" + +"Fight! By G--, yes. Take off your coat and try." + +Howden and Stubbs both tried to stop them, but they might as well have +tried to stop the tide rising. They were shaken off impatiently. +Piper pushed the table and sofa aside, and in less than three minutes +after Lucius had entered the room they were at it hammer and tongs. + +There was not much science displayed. The room was too small, for one +thing, and there was a good deal of damage done to furniture and +breakables before it was all over. If Lucius had kept cool he might +have made up in some measure for the great disparity in weight between +them, for he knew just a little more of the game than Piper; but both +of them were blind with rage, and it was attack on both sides, with +very little defence, as long as it lasted. + +It did not last long. Lucius fought as long as he could stand, but his +blows got weaker and weaker, while Piper got in again and again with as +much force as at first. At last he knocked Lucius clean through the +glass doors of a cupboard which held his stock of crockery, and he fell +heavily on to the floor, and lay there insensible, with the blood +pouring from his head. Piper had not had enough even to cool his +passion. "Get a towel and water from the bedroom," he said to Dizzy, +who was kneeling by the side of his friend. "And take him out of this +as soon as you can. I'm not going to stay in the same room with him." +And he put on his coat and went out of the room. + +Howden stayed behind and helped to restore Lucius to consciousness. +"It's rot his tackling a chap like Pips," he said; "he's not in the +same class with him, and he's a demon when he's roused. I wouldn't +care to take him on myself." + +"He's a d--d cad," said Dizzy, in deep concern, "and I don't care if he +hears me say so." + +This was the only conversation that passed between them till Lucius +came round. Then they both helped him across to his own rooms in +Whewell's Court, which they reached with some difficulty, as Lucius was +dazed, and as weak as a kitten. Here the drama changed from tragedy to +farce, for Mr. Binney was waiting for them, and as soon as he saw the +state to which Lucius had been reduced he made such lamentations that +neither Dizzy nor Howden could help laughing. + +"Oh, chuck it, Binney," said Howden. "He'll be all right when he gets +to bed." + +"Go out and get a doctor, Mr. Binney," said Dizzy. "He's cut his head +with some broken glass, and we can't stop the bleeding." + +Mr. Binney dashed out instantly in a frenzy of terror, and Howden and +Dizzy helped Lucius off with his clothes and into bed, where he lay +silent with his face to the wall, while the blood slowly oozed out from +under the bandages on his head and soaked into his pillow. The two +stood looking at him irresolutely. + +"I'm all right now," said Lucius faintly, "you needn't wait." They +went into the sitting-room. + +"Look here, sir," said Dizzy. "You must stop this business. It's gone +quite far enough." + +"My dear fellow," said Howden, "I didn't have anything to do with it. +I told Piper he ought to stop it when Binney wrote to object, +because--well, because Binney ain't a bad old chap after all, and it's +rough on him. But he wouldn't, and it isn't likely he'll stop now, +after this." + +"Well, if he won't stop it of his own accord, he'll have to be made +to," said Dizzy. + +"I don't know who's going to make him," said Howden. + +"Oh, I think we can manage that," said Dizzy. + +Mr. Binney came back with a doctor, who patched up Lucius's damaged +head and told him to keep in bed until he should come again on the next +day. Mr. Binney kept fussing about the room wringing his hands over +the trouble that he had caused, and bewailing the smallness of his +stature which debarred him from visiting summary justice upon Piper for +the way he had treated his son. He was a ridiculous little object in +his grief, and his behaviour was not soothing to the nerves of a sick +man. + +"Do get him away," whispered Lucius to Dizzy. "I want to go to sleep;" +and the latter, by the exercise of infinite tact, managed to remove Mr. +Binney from the premises. A short time afterwards, having seen that +Lucius was comfortably settled, he removed himself, and then set to +work to lay plans to circumvent Piper and cause the downfall of the +_New Court Chronicle_. First of all he went round to the rooms of an +influential member of the Third Trinity Boat Club, a man named Tait, +who was rowing "Seven" in the University boat. He found him at home, +and with him were Mirrilees, two other members of the University crew, +and our old acquaintance Blathgowrie. To them he confided his story, +which was received with interest and indignation, for Lucius was a +popular member of the boating set, between which and the clique +represented by Howden and Piper there happened to be a certain amount +of bad blood at that particular time. + +"It's all the fault of that confounded little bantam," said +Blathgowrie, when Dizzy's tale had come to an end. "It's jolly good of +Lucy to fight his battles for him after the way he's treated him. I'm +hanged if I would." + +"Those letters are the best thing in Piper's scurrilous rag," said +Tait. "It's a pity to stop them, but if Lucy objects--and I expect it +was more on his own account than his governor's--I think it's about +time the paper was suppressed. I've a good mind to take Mr. Piper on +myself." + +"You can't do that," said Mirrilees quickly. "You might manage to lick +him, but even that is doubtful, and he'd damage you so that you +wouldn't be able to row for a day or two. Besides, if you licked him +once a week from now till the end of the term he wouldn't stop the +paper. He's not that sort." + +"It's got to be stopped somehow," said Dizzy. + +"Who publishes it?" asked Blathgowrie. + +"Breedon," said Tait. + +"Very well, then. We'll tell him to leave off, and if he don't we'll +boycott him. We can get everybody to go somewhere else for their +_menus_ and all those little jobs. He won't hesitate long between us +and Mr. Piper, I think." + +Blathgowrie busied himself to some purpose, and submitted to Messrs. +Breedon & Co. a considerable list of gentlemen who proposed to transfer +their valuable custom if another number of the _New Court Chronicle_ +appeared with Messrs. Breedon's name on the cover. The firm caved in +at once and intimated to the editor that he must find another +publisher. Piper made himself very objectionable, but Messrs. Breedon +& Co. were firm, and absolutely refused to bring out another number for +him. Piper had now got his back up and swore to go on publishing his +paper if he brought out every number at a loss. He found a more +obscure stationer than Messrs. Breedon & Co. who was willing to oblige +him, and went on with his editorial functions, throwing far more vigour +and malice into the next instalment of the "Binney Correspondence" than +he had done before. + +Poor Lucius lay alone that afternoon in his comfortless college +bedroom. He was very miserable. He felt weak and ill, and his +thoughts took a melancholy turn. He had done no good by his single +combat with the redoubtable Piper; in fact, things would now probably +be worse than before. He had no energy to feel angry with his father, +but he saw the whole University pointing fingers of scorn at him, an +unpleasantness which might be expected to continue and increase as long +as he remained at Cambridge. The hope which he had entertained up to a +week ago of a place in the University boat no longer buoyed him up +against adversity. In his present state of depression he saw himself +missing everything that made Cambridge interesting to him, and heartily +wished himself away from the place altogether. His thoughts, nowadays, +seldom kept long away from the girl whom he had seen for the first time +last term, but there was not much comfort to be got out of thinking +about her. He had not been so fortunate this term as to have hit upon +a lecture which she attended, and no longer had the satisfaction of +sitting in the same room with her for an hour, twice a week. He had +discovered that she went to a lecture at St. John's College, and used +to hang about outside the gates on the chance of seeing her as she went +to and fro. But there are two ways between Newnham and St. John's, one +along Trinity Street and the King's Parade, the other past the backs of +the colleges, and after a time the uncomfortable conviction took hold +of Lucius that his divinity was taking a malicious delight in dodging +him. If he waited outside the big gate of St. John's, she went home by +the backs, and if he lay in wait on the Bridge of Sighs, she would go +through the town. And upon the rare occasions when he did meet her +face to face there was no sign that she was so much as aware of his +existence. Lying on his bed, with heavy heart and throbbing head, as +the light of the short winter afternoon slowly died, poor Lucius took +the gloomiest view of his chances of ever becoming better acquainted +with her. + +Just as he had reached the lowest possible depths of depression, +Mirrilees and Tait came in to see him, and to sympathise. They told +him of Blathgowrie's strategy. They had not discovered yet that Piper +had circumvented it, and arranged to produce his paper from another +address. + +"We're going to hoot Piper in hall to-night," said Tait, "and see if we +can't bring on a scrimmage afterwards. If we do, we'll put him in the +fountain. I expect he'll oblige us. He's a pugnacious beggar." + +When they had gone, he received an unexpected visit from his cousin, +John Jermyn, who was much surprised to find him in bed, and hardly knew +how to express himself with reference to current events. In a small +way, in his own college, John Jermyn had suffered some annoyance from +his relationship to Mr. Binney, and was not particularly proud of it. +His shyness, however, prevented him from alluding to his cousin's +reputation. If he had done so, he might have discovered that Lucius, +in spite of his loyalty, was not very well pleased with his father at +that particular time. + +"My mother is coming up next week for a few days," said Jermyn, "and I +came to ask you if you would lunch with us on Tuesday. There will only +be she and my sister from Newnham. You haven't met her yet." + +"But surely, your sister is at Girton, isn't she?" said Lucius. + +"No, Newnham," said Jermyn. + +Lucius's heart suddenly lightened. Any connection with Newnham was +welcome to him, and opened up possibilities. + +"Why, I went out to Girton to call on her," said Lucius; "they said she +was out." + +"Rather lucky," said his cousin. "That's a Miss German with a G. +Well, then, you'll come on Tuesday, if you're well enough, at half-past +one." + +"Yes, I'll come," said Lucius. "Thanks very much." + +When his cousin had left him he found that his spirits had lightened +considerably. The visit of his friends had cheered him, for he had +thought that if he was to fight his father's battles for him he would +have to fight them alone, and it was pleasant to find that there were +others on his side. And the Newnham girl seemed to be nearer to him, +somehow, now he knew that she and his cousin were at the same college. +He began to build castles in the air. He knew that his cousin was in +her first year, and he thought that if his divinity had been in +Cambridge before last term, he must have noticed her; so the two were +of the same year, and probably friends. He might get to know her +through his cousin--though it was difficult to see how an introduction +could be brought about. At any rate he would be able to find out her +name, and that was something. He was rather sorry that he had refused +the invitation to the Norfolk Rectory at Christmas. He would make up +for it by cultivating his cousins now. He comforted himself with rosy +visions, and by-and-bye fell asleep. Mr. Binney came in after his +afternoon's work on the river was over, and went out again. Dizzy +crept in, looked at him, and crept away again on tiptoe. But still +Lucius slept on, and when he woke again about nine o'clock he was very +much better. + +In the meantime the ill-feeling between the boating men and the +football players, fanned by Piper's treatment of Lucius, had burnt up +to a blaze. When Piper went into hall that night, a little late, there +was a chorus of groans and hisses as he passed the table where +Mirrilees and Tait sat. He stopped for an instant, and an ugly look +came over his face. The groans grew louder, and the dons turned round +and looked down the hall from their seats at the high tables. Then +Piper went to his place, the noise ceased and the dons, reassured, +turned to their dinner. But there were ominous whisperings and glances +at the table where Piper sat, and like signs at the table of the +boating men nearer the door. The latter finished their dinner early +and went out in a body. When they had got outside the door they waited +by the college screens. Men who belonged to neither faction dropping +out of hall one by one, looked with surprise at such an unexpected +gathering, and passed on. Some of them waited outside to see what +would happen. Before very long Piper came out, immediately followed by +Howden and the rest. He looked black when he saw the waiting crowd, +and then there was a curious pause. Bodily violence between +fellow-undergraduates is a rare thing unless arising spontaneously from +chance collisions of opposing factions. In this case there was plenty +of bad feeling, but no hot blood at present, and although both sides +were eager for a quarrel, nobody quite knew how to begin it. After a +moment's pause Piper went on towards the steps leading down to +Neville's Court. He looked a very ugly customer. Although Lucius had +not succeeded in doing him a fraction of the damage which he himself +had received, Piper had not got off quite unmarked. He had a black eye +and a swollen cheek bone. His temper was up, too, and he was probably +nearer the state of mind when a fight is a relief than any one there. + +"Ugly bruiser!" remarked Tait as he passed. + +Piper faced him instantly. "What's that, sir!" he asked angrily. + +"I said you were an ugly bruiser, sir." + +Piper aimed a savage blow at him before the words were well out of his +mouth. Tait had just time to parry it. There was no need for any +further introduction. Exactly where they were, with startled waiters +going to and fro from the kitchens to the hall, and the intermittent +stream of undergraduates passing through, the two parties fell upon one +another, and the noise of the combat rose above the clatter of plates +and the muffled swinging of the heavy doors, and reached the dons on +the dais at the other end of the hall. "Put him in the fountain," +shouted Mirrilees, and the struggling mass surged slowly out of the +doorway and down the shallow flight of steps into the Great Court. +Blood was up now and there was no lack of sincerity in the blows that +were given and taken. Little groups of disinterested spectators looked +on at the strange spectacle of men of the same college, most of them +well known throughout the University for their prowess in different +branches of sport, fighting fiercely, and gradually drawing nearer to +the great stone fountain which rears its stately mass from one of the +grass plots. The boating men had a slight advantage in numbers, but +the footballers were, with some few exceptions, a heavier lot, and +progress was slow. Piper fought savagely and disabled one or two of +the men who were dragging him along, while his friends were mostly +engaged in a series of single combats round him. There is no knowing +how the battle would have ended. In spite of their slightly superior +force it is doubtful whether Mirrilees's and Tait's party could have +succeeded in inflicting the punishment on Piper which they intended. +But before they reached the fountain a little party of dons who had +been apprised of what was going on came running down the steps of the +hall towards the struggling and swaying mass. They were led by the +Senior Dean. "Stop this, gentlemen, stop this," he shouted, as he +reached them. A few of them stopped irresolutely. The rest paid no +attention to the order. It is doubtful if they heard it. The Senior +Dean, who was a man of resolution, threw himself among them, followed +by one or two of his companions. At first there was no result, except +that dons and undergraduates were mixed up together in one general +_melee_. But gradually the voice and energetic action of authority +began to tell. First one left off fighting and then another, until +Piper and the men who had got hold of him were the only ones still +left. Deprived of the assistance of his backers, Piper was carried +with a little run right up to the steps of the fountain, but there the +Dean and a few stalwart Fellows who were helping him managed to stop +them by sheer force, and the fight ceased, leaving a dishevelled +panting crowd of combatants facing one another, with the stern figure +of judicial vengeance master of the field. Names were taken, orders +given, and the crowd slowly dispersed. The boating men held the +conviction that if they had been left alone they would have done what +they meant to do and avenged the defeat Piper had administered to +Lucius. At any rate they had given him a lesson which he wouldn't +forget in a hurry. The football men made a great deal of the fact that +they had been overpowered by superior numbers. _They_ were also +greatly cheered by the conviction that they had given their opponents +something that they wouldn't forget in a hurry. + +The sequel to the fracas was rather curious. It resulted in an entire +healing up of the feud that had arisen, no one quite knew how, for it +dated from before the issue of the _New Court Chronicle_. These +quarrels between two sets of men are rare in the University, but they +sometimes arise and continue for a year or so and then die away. This +one would have disappeared slowly in due course, because no two sets of +men can be said to be absolutely clear and distinct one from another, +but are merged at some points by friendships between their respective +members. But, the matter having been brought to a head by the quarrel +between Lucius and Piper, and the bad blood let off, the ill-feeling +disappeared as if by magic, and men who had fought with one another on +that night by the fountain might have been seen in one another's rooms +later on in the term the best of friends. + +There was one exception to the general amicability. Piper, who was an +evil-tempered fellow, emerged from the tussle in a black rage, and +continued in it for much longer than a normally constituted man would +have found such a state of mind possible. + +The Senior Dean being wise in his generation, and having a fairly +shrewd idea as to how the unseemly fracas had arisen, and what was +likely to be its result, dealt lightly with the offenders. There were +a good many official interviews and a few "gates," and then the matter +was allowed to drop. None of the combatants actually told him in so +many words what had been the immediate origin of the fray, but Mr. +Binney having discovered the day after that Piper was more determined +than ever to continue the publication of his paper, had paid an early +visit to the Dean and asked him to suppress it officially. He had +brought the term's numbers already issued with him, and the Dean +gravely perused the "Binney Correspondence" then and there, while the +object of it sat uneasily before him watching his face. + +"I don't defend this, Mr. Binney," said the Dean, laying down the +papers on his table when he had finished them. "A great deal of it is +very offensive. But, you know, you've got yourself to thank for most +of it. + +"I know--I know," said poor little Mr. Binney, whose cock-sureness in +his treatment of Deans and Tutors had been considerably reduced of +late. "A good deal of it might fairly have been said of me last term. +But it isn't true of me now. With the exception of a dinner in my +rooms on the second night of the term, after which occurred some +insubordination for which I was not responsible, nothing of the sort +mentioned here has happened. I have been one of the quietest men in +the college. It is my fixed intention to bring an action for libel +against this man Piper," he continued, with a slight return to his +former manner, "if this goes on, and if you don't see your way of +stopping it, sir. It is intolerable." + +"You will not find it necessary to do that, Mr. Binney," said the Dean. +"I will see that it is stopped. You had better leave these papers with +me." + +It did not add to Piper's amiability when it came to his turn to be +interviewed, to be told by the Dean that he had perused several numbers +of the _New Court Chronicle_, and that it was about time that +publication came to an end. He allowed Piper to argue the point, but +when he found that they were no nearer an agreement on it than before, +he told him peremptorily that he had made up his mind that the paper +should be stopped, and stopped it must be. He pointed out several +offensive articles aimed at the authorities of the University and +Colleges, and alluded very little to the "Binney Correspondence," and +finally found it necessary to tell Mr. Piper that he might choose +between publishing another number of the paper and remaining at +Cambridge. + +So the _New Court Chronicle_ came to an end, and neither Mr. Binney nor +Lucius suffered any further annoyances from the printed expression of +Piper's malice. The effects of the hitherto published instalments of +the "Binney Correspondence," however, did not end there as far as Mr. +Binney was concerned, as will afterwards, appear. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LUCIUS MAKES ONE DISCOVERY AND MRS. TOLLER ANOTHER + +Lucius was out and about again, not much the worse for his late +encounter, by the time Tuesday came round, when he was to lunch with +his cousin. He was in fairly good spirits as he walked down the King's +Parade and Silver Street, towards the ancient pile of Queens' College. +He and his father were better friends than they had been any time since +Mr. Binney had come into residence at Cambridge. Mr. Binney now +comported himself with the dignity that befitted his years, and no +longer made his son's life a burden to him by those continued +indiscretions which had brought shame and confusion of face to Lucius +in the past. He had restored his full allowance, and Lucius was better +off in pocket than he had been since Mr. Binney had come up. And then +the Newnham girl, to whom somehow he seemed to be getting nearer, now +that he had discovered that she and his cousin were fellow-students, +had distinctly given him a glance of recognition when he had seen her +in King's Chapel on the previous Sunday. It was not much to pride +himself on, certainly, but such as it was he had hugged the thought of +it ever since. She had been sitting with some other girls in the front +row of seats as Lucius walked up the chapel, and he had taken +particular notice of those other girls when he had manoeuvred himself +into a seat opposite her, in case one of them should turn out to be his +cousin. + +John Jermyn kept in a charming set of oak-panelled rooms over-looking +the river. + +There was an elderly lady sitting in the window seat as Lucius entered, +who rose to greet him. She was tall and graceful, with a sweet face +and grey hair. + +"You are very like your dear mother," she said, her eyes growing a +little moist as she looked at him. "We used to be great friends in +days gone by, but that is twenty years ago now." + +Lucius sat and talked to her in the window seat, while John Jermyn +wandered about the room with his hands in his pockets casting impatient +glances at the clock on the mantelpiece and the lunch on the table. +"Betty is late," he said. "I told her half-past one, and it is getting +on for a quarter to two." + +"We had better not wait any longer," said Mrs. Jermyn, rising. But +just then light steps were heard on the staircase, the door opened, and +disclosed to Lucius's astonished gaze the form and features of the +Newnham girl. + +Miss Betty Jermyn came forward, rosy and a little out of breath, with +murmured apologies, kissed her mother and her brother, and then waited +with a deepening blush and a mischievous light in her eyes, to be +introduced to Lucius, for whom the low dark room seemed suddenly to +have become filled with brilliant sunshine. + +"This is jour cousin Lucius, Betty," said Mrs. Jermyn, and the two +shook hands, but found no words with which to address one another. + +In the course of luncheon it came out in the most natural way that +Betty and Lucius had attended the same lecture in Trinity College all +last term, and remembered one another perfectly. + +"But you must have known who I was," said Lucius, a sudden light +breaking in on him, as he remembered those little glances of amusement +which had so thrilled his soul last term. "Gandey always used to read +out our names after the lecture." + +"Yes, I knew who you were," said Betty, with a little laugh. "And I +wondered how long it would be before you knew who _I_ was." + +Lucius felt that when he was alone again he would be very angry with +himself for not having cultivated the society of his cousin John more +assiduously, and also for having refused Mrs. Jermyn's invitation to +stay with them in the Christmas vacation, but at present he was so +happy that there was no room for regrets. + +It was quite apparent to the maternal eyes of Mrs. Jermyn before lunch +was half over that this nice boy with his mother's eyes was head over +ears in love with her pretty little daughter, whom she still looked +upon as a child, in spite of the dignity conferred upon her by a +scholarship at Newnham. Her son, of course, saw nothing of the sort, +but he was pleased to find that his cousin, who was something of a hero +in his eyes, seemed to have taken a fancy to his sister, whom he found +it constantly necessary to keep in her place. He was afraid that Betty +would never learn to show reverence where reverence was due, but it was +a relief to find that Lucius apparently did not take her little +audacities amiss, and indeed seemed to be even amused by them. What +Mrs. Jermyn thought, it would not become us to disclose, but she +accepted Lucius's invitation for the whole party to lunch with him on +the next day, and her cordiality towards him had suffered no diminution +when they parted. + +It was curious that Mr. Binney's name was not once mentioned between +them. John Jermyn had given his mother a rather highly coloured +account of our hero's peccadillos, and Betty had added her little +comments, for the fame of Mr. Binney's exploits had penetrated even the +walls of Newnham College. + +"Oh, mother," she had said, "you really can't have anything to do with +cousin Peter. He is a horrid little man and leads Lucius such a life, +so everybody says. And Lucius is so popular with all the men. It is a +great shame." + +"I never cared for Mr. Binney very much," said Mrs. Jermyn, "but I +should like you to ask Lucius to meet us, John. I should like to see +dear Lucy's boy, although I saw very little of her after her marriage." + +So Lucius had come, been seen and had conquered, and went away again +full of delighted wonder at the surprising thing that had happened. +His first desire was to find the sympathetic Dizzy and impart to him +the astounding news. He tracked him down at the racquet courts and +brought him away when he had finished his game. + +"I say, old man," he said in as calm a tone as he could muster, "I've +found out the name of that girl at last. What do you think it is?" + +"Oh, I don't know," said Dizzy, who had lost his match, and was as +nearly inclined to pessimism as was consistent with his equable nature. +"Henrietta, I should think, or Lulu, or Kate. Parents haven't any +taste nowadays. Look at mine christening me Benjamin. Stubbs is bad +enough, but Benjamin! 'Pon my word I sometimes feel inclined to get it +changed by Act of Parliament." + +"Her name is Elizabeth J----" + +"Yes, it would be," interrupted Dizzy. "Elizabeth Jones. Just what I +said. Well, what are you going to do about it?" + +"I didn't say Elizabeth Jones," said Lucius. "Elizabeth is a very +pretty name, especially when it's shortened to Betty. Her surname +isn't Jones, it's Jermyn." + +"Oh, is it? Well, I'm not so sure that--_what_! JERMYN!! You don't +mean to say----?" + +"Yes, I do," said Lucius triumphantly. "That very girl is my cousin at +Newnham, and no other." + +"Well, I'm blowed!" exclaimed Dizzy. "But there, Lucy, I always told +you if you'd only take the trouble to hunt your cousin down, or rather +up, she'd turn out to be a topper. And I was right. When are you +going to have her to tea?" + +"She's coming to lunch to-morrow," said Lucius. + +"I'm engaged to-morrow, I'm afraid," said Dizzy. "Going to lunch with +Blathgowrie. I dare say I could get off it, though." + +"You needn't try," said Lucius; "but I'll get her to tea some day soon, +before her mother goes away, and then you can come. Oh, my goodness! +What a chance for a fellow! to be head over ears in love with a girl, +and think he's never going to get to know her, and then for her to turn +out to be his own cousin after all." + +"Did she say anything about me?" inquired Dizzy. + +"About you? No. Why should she?" + +"Why shouldn't she, you mean. I'm a very striking looking feller. She +must have noticed me in the lecture-room last term." + +"You needn't trouble yourself that she'll waste many thoughts on _you_." + +"Oh, all right, old man. Keep your wool on. Now, don't forget to ask +me to tea one of these days. I won't try and cut you out; you can rely +on me." + +The remainder of that week passed like a happy dream to Lucius. He +managed to spend some time every day with his cousins, found his way +right inside Mrs. Jermyn's heart, and seemed to make very good headway +up to a certain point with Betty. That is to say, they became +excellent friends, and were on perfectly familiar terms, but at the end +of the week he was no nearer knowing whether she reciprocated his +admiration than at the beginning, for beyond a certain point he was +never allowed to go. When Saturday came, Mrs. Jermyn went away and +left Lucius desolated. But she had already asked him to stay with them +in Norfolk during the Easter vacation, and he was left in by no means +such a state of hopeless longing as before, for he managed to meet his +cousin pretty often during the rest of the term, and although he was +never allowed to enjoy the pleasure of her company for very long, she +seldom met him without a few words of conversation passing between +them, which gave Lucius something to live for now that the University +boat had gone to Putney and left him behind in Cambridge. + +Mrs. Jermyn had not been able to avoid Mr. Binney altogether during her +stay at Cambridge. She thought that she ought to see something of him +now that his son seemed likely to become an intimate friend in her +family. Accordingly Mr. Binney was notified of her arrival, and called +on her at the "Bull" where she was staying. Mr. Binney had not yet +recovered from the events narrated in the last two chapters, and was in +a depressed and dull state of mind. He quite forgot to patronize Mrs. +Jermyn on the fact of her son being a scholar of Queens' College, while +he was a pensioner of Trinity, as he certainly would have done a few +months before. Mrs. Jermyn talked chiefly about his wife, and Mr. +Binney, who had been a widower for fifteen years, and had set up the +image of Mrs. Higginbotham in the niche left vacant by the death of +Lucius's mother, followed her lead with some uneasiness of mind. There +was no warmth of feeling between them, and each was mutually relieved +when Mr. Binney rose to take his leave. He apologised for not asking +his cousins to lunch, but explained that he had to be down on the river +early every afternoon, and Mrs. Jermyn was not sorry that the +invitation was not given. + +Mr. Binney, of course, still corresponded regularly with Mrs. +Higginbotham. He had refrained from sending her the _New Court +Chronicle_, or, indeed, from mentioning that feature of it which most +nearly concerned him, for some slight sense of dignity, which he had +appeared to have relinquished during the Michaelmas term, had returned +to him, and he was not anxious to have it known that he was treated +with ridicule. He wrote about his work and about the prospects of the +First Trinity first Lent boat, and if his letter did betoken a +depression of spirits, the tender Mrs. Higginbotham put this down to +his separation from her and threw a wealth of affection and sympathy +into her replies, which greatly consoled Mr. Binney during his trying +time. She also expressed herself delighted with the improvement in +conduct displayed by her undergraduate lover, for, although Mrs. +Higginbotham liked to read stories of youthful daring and devilry, when +theory resolved itself into practice her mind recoiled affrighted. Mr. +Binney was fond of imagery, and he often assured Mrs. Higginbotham at +this time that her love and confidence in him was the rock to which he +clung while the waves of adversity buffeted him; it was also an anchor, +and a port, and a city of refuge; a ray of sunshine, a star, a beacon, +a lantern; a refreshing fountain, an oasis in the desert, a cup of cold +water; a buckler, and a good many other things. Mrs. Higginbotham made +no attempt to discover what the waves of adversity were that were +reported to be buffeting Mr. Binney. She liked his poetical method of +expressing himself; she said it made her feel warm all over, and there +she let the matter rest. + +But there was a serpent in this garden of mutual esteem. If Mrs. +Higginbotham did not read the _New Court Chronicle_ and was ignorant of +the dreadful things that were being said about her Peter, there was +someone else who was fully acquainted with them. + +The day after Mr. Binney's dinner-party in Russell Square, Mrs. Toller +called upon Mrs. Higginbotham, as she had announced her intention of +doing. She waited for ten minutes alone in the drawing-room before +Mrs. Higginbotham made her appearance. The first three or four she +spent in refreshing her memory of the contents of the room. Then, +growing bolder, she inspected the contents of Mrs. Higginbotham's +Davenport writing-table, without, however, discovering anything that +interested her. Thinking she heard a step on the stair she seated +herself quickly beside the fire and snatched up a paper from the little +table by her side. Nobody came, and Mrs. Toller then turning over the +little pile of periodicals, lighted upon the creased copy of the _New +Court Chronicle_ which Mr. Binney had posted from Cambridge. + +"Well! upon my word!" exclaimed Mrs. Toller to herself when she had +perused the paragraph in "Madge's Letter" already referred to. She +then turned to the title page of the paper and made a note of the +publisher's address on the little ivory tablet she carried in her +purse. When she had done that she heard Mrs. Higginbotham approaching, +so, hastily burying the _New Court Chronicle_ under the pile and taking +up _The Christian World_ instead, she affected to be so deeply +interested in its varied contents as to be unaware of Mrs. +Higginbotham's approach until that good lady had closed the door behind +her and begun to make apologies for her delay, which had arisen through +the arrival of a dressmaker to "try on." + +When Cambridge University had once more got into the swing of term +time, there appeared every Monday morning among Mrs. Toller's +correspondence a wrapper enclosing a paper directed from that ancient +seat of learning. Mrs. Toller always secreted this and opened it after +breakfast when the Doctor had retired to his study, for her +subscription to the _New Court Chronicle_ cost her sixpence halfpenny a +week, which was more than the good Doctor paid for having the _Daily +Chronicle_ served up hot with his breakfast every morning. University +journalism is not apt to afford great entertainment to people outside +the University where it is practised, but Mrs. Toller, although a woman +of economical habits, counted the information which she derived from +the _New Court Chronicle_ cheap at the price which she paid for her +subscription, and looked forward keenly to the budget of news which +arrived for her every Monday morning. + +It must not be supposed that Mrs. Toller intended to keep her +information from her excellent husband; she was far too good a wife for +that. What she meant to do was to keep the _New Court Chronicle_ to +herself until the end of the term, in order that Mr. Binney's infamies +might heap themselves up until she had a good budget of scandal to lay +before the Doctor. The game went merrily on for four or five weeks and +there was matter of offence against Mr. Binney enough to have brought +down upon him the wrath of the whole congregation of which he was so +distinguished a member. But Mrs. Toller's appetite, whetted by the +disclosure she had already surprised, thirsted for more. More she +would have had, for Mr. Piper had got his hand thoroughly in, but, as +we know, the _New Court Chronicle_ had come to an untimely end, and +great was Mrs. Toller's disappointment when she received, one Monday +morning, instead of the journal she had so looked forward to during the +whole of the Sunday's religious exercises, a letter from the publisher +informing her that the publication had ceased, and that he begged to +return to her the remainder of the term's subscription. However, there +was quite enough upon which to act. + +The Doctor retired to his study as usual after breakfast. Mrs. Toller +got her daughter out of the way, produced the numbers she had already +received, and refreshed her memory of the whole of the "Binney +Correspondence." Then she sought her husband, who was taking a +well-earned rest after his Sabbath labours over a novel, which he +hastily secreted upon the entrance of his wife. + +"What's that you're reading, Samuel?" said Mrs. Toller. "I shouldn't +waste my time over that trash if I were you. I've got an important +matter to talk to you about." + +Dr. Toller breathed a sigh of resignation. He knew those important +matters. If they were not complaints of the behaviour of various +members of his congregation, they were generally household matters +which Mrs. Toller could very well have settled for herself. + +"You know how deep an interest I take in the welfare of the church," +began Mrs. Toller, seating herself in the easy chair by the side of the +fire. + +Dr. Toller knew only too well. "Yes, my dear, certainly," he said. + +"I should be very sorry," pursued Mrs. Toller, "if any scandal occurred +through the behaviour of one of our most prominent members, especially +when he happens to be a deacon." + +"Yes, my dear," interrupted Dr. Toller hastily, "but I think that is +hardly likely to happen. All our deacons are men of irreproachable +character." + +"I am not so sure about that," said Mrs. Toller. "There is one of them +who seems to be rapidly treading the broad road, and if he is not very +sharply pulled up, I tremble to think of the catastrophe that may +occur." + +"Oh, nonsense, my dear," said Dr. Toller. "You must surely be +exaggerating. There is an occasional tendency towards undue +interference on the part of our officers, who are some of them men of +more money than brains, although I wouldn't for the world have it known +that I said so. But I have no reason to dread anything worse than +that. You have got hold of some trivial matter and are magnifying it +in your mind--quite unintentionally, I am sure," he added hastily, +observing the ominous stiffening of Mrs. Toller's upper lip, "and with +the best of intentions, I am sure." + +"I am not aware," said Mrs. Toller, drawing herself up, "that +drunkenness is a trivial matter, Samuel, or revelry. If it is so, I +have misread the meaning of Scripture, and I should be glad to be +corrected." + +"Of course, my dear," said Dr. Toller, "such things are very dreadful, +but you have surely no reason to charge one of our deacons with +such--er--crimes." + +"Read the passages I have marked with blue pencil in these papers," +said Mrs. Toller, rising and handing the doctor her little bundle of +ephemeral journalism. "And then say if you can justly accuse me of +exaggeration, which I beg to say is not a habit of mine. I will leave +you for a quarter of an hour and then return." + +When Mrs. Toller did return she found the Doctor chuckling over some of +the humorous sallies of Mr. Piper's young lions. + +"Samuel!" she exclaimed, "is that the fashion in which you treat a +serious matter like this? Such ill-timed levity is surely out of +place." + +"Quite so, my dear, quite so," said her husband, his face instantly +becoming serious. "I was not laughing at the news about Mr. Binney, +which I finished perusing some time ago. Some of these young men are +very clever. But really, with regard to Mr. Binney, I fully share your +feeling, my dear. Mr. Binney has always been rather erratic, curiously +so for a man of his years and position, but I could never have believed +that this sort of thing would happen. I--I--hardly know what to say +about it. But how did you get hold of these papers?" + +"Never mind that," said Mrs. Toller firmly. "We must act, and act +promptly so as to save scandal." + +Dr. Toller disliked acting at all on Monday morning, but he saw that +his wife was not to be trifled with, and said, "Certainly. Yes. I +quite agree with you. What shall I do?" + +"You must go up to Cambridge instantly, and remonstrate with the +misguided man." + +Dr. Toller looked blank. "Do you think that is necessary?" he asked. +"I should have thought a letter would have answered the purpose." + +"Not at all," said Mrs. Toller. "Mr. Binney is in that state of mind +in which he would take no notice of a letter. Severe expostulation and +ghostly advice are what he wants. He must be checked in his profligate +career at all costs, or worse may come of it. I should go with you, +but I have my mothers' meeting this afternoon, and I am not one to +neglect my duty." + +"But, surely, my dear," exclaimed the Doctor, "you would not wish me to +go to Cambridge to-day?" + +"Certainly I should," replied Mrs. Toller. "Why procrastinate? And +yet, I don't know. To-morrow perhaps I could accompany you. Perhaps +there is no necessity." + +"If it has to be done," said Dr. Toller, "perhaps it had better be done +to-day. It is not a pleasant business, but I agree with you that the +gravity of the occasion demands immediate action, and I shall not +shrink from taking it. I am really astounded at the disclosures made +in these papers. If the extraordinary course Mr. Binney appears to +have taken were to come to the ears of the church committee, I don't +know what would happen. I will go to Cambridge after the ladies' Bible +class this afternoon, and I think I will stay the night, my dear. I +should like to have a look round the colleges, that is if you have no +objection." + +"Yes, you can do that," said Mrs. Toller, "if you like. And you might +call on Lucius and see how he is behaving himself, and on young +Bromley, at Emmanuel College. And mind, Samuel, I shall expect a full +account from you when you return home." + +So Dr. Toller packed his bag and traveled up to Cambridge by the five +o'clock train. He drove first of all to Corpus, where he had a friend +among the Fellows. He was persuaded to dine in Hall before he set out +on his visit to Mr. Binney, and enjoyed himself exceedingly at the High +Table, and in the Combination room afterwards. He did not disclose his +object in coming up to Cambridge, but heard quite enough about the +extraordinary career of Mr. Binney, who enjoyed considerable notoriety +at the University, to persuade him that his visit of expostulation was +really needed. About nine o'clock he told his host that he wished to +call on an undergraduate, and putting on his clerical cloak and hat, he +went round to Trinity College, where he was directed by the porter to +Mr. Binney's rooms in Jesus Lane. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MR. BINNEY GETS INTO TROUBLE + +Since the dinner at the beginning of the term Mr. Binney had done +nothing further to bring him under the displeasure of the authorities. +Howden, in return for the pecuniary assistance he had received, kept +his noisy friends away from him almost entirely, and so managed it that +none of them considered himself ill-used by the cessation of Mr. +Binney's former hospitalities. He worked very hard, and if the absence +of his previous amusements did make life rather dull to him, the +excitement of the coming Lent races and the probability that the crew +he was steering would give a good account of themselves buoyed him up. +Everything went well, the men were trained to a nicety, and most of +them were confident that their boat would go head of the river. On the +morning of the races Mr. Binney was too nervous to work. He attended +one lecture, but found himself quite incapable of discovering any +meaning in the lecturer's remarks. After that he relinquished the +attempt to turn his mind to anything except boat-racing, and wandered +about the town, with his hands in his pockets, looking the picture of +misery. By-and-bye it occurred to him to pay a visit to his son and to +try and extract some consolation from that experienced oarsman. He +found Lucius engaged over a game of piquet with the ever-cheerful +Dizzy. Lucius looked rather ashamed of himself when his father +entered, but Dizzy was not at all put out. + +"Ah, Mr. Binney," he exclaimed, "very pleased to see you. We are just +unbending our great minds a little. All work and no play, you know, +won't do at all." + +But reprehensible as card playing at twelve o'clock in the morning +undoubtedly is, Mr. Binney made no comment upon his son's occupation. + +"I am terribly nervous, Lucius," he said. "I wish this afternoon was +well over." + +"What! Got the needle!" exclaimed Dizzy, while Lucius cleared away the +cards. "Well, I'm not surprised at it. My old governor once had to +make a political speech. He don't know anything about politics, but +the big man had disappointed 'em, and they couldn't get anybody bigger +at a day's notice. I assure you he got so nervous that he lost the use +of his limbs and had to be massaged for an hour before he went off to +the meeting, and when he got there he made such a hash of it that +nobody's ever asked him to talk since, although he frequently obliges +when he _isn't_ asked." + +"Political speaking is nothing to this," said Mr. Binney. "I know all +about that. When I put up for the County Council two years ago, I had +to make a speech every night of my life for a fortnight, and I enjoyed +it, although I didn't get in; but I feel so nervous now that I really +don't know what to do." + +"You will be all right, father," said Lucius, "when you find yourself +sitting in the boat with the rudder lines in your hand. Make a good +lunch and forget all about it till it's time to go down to the river. +I should take a glass of brandy if I were you. It'll pull you +together, and can't do you any harm as you're not rowing." + +"Brandy, Lucy!" echoed Dizzy, "the very worst thing you could possibly +take. Don't you remember Dale who coxed the Eight at Eton. When he +was in the lower boats he got the needle to such an extent he cried all +the morning. Some fellow gave him half a glass of brandy. It made him +as merry as a cricket. He said he didn't care for anybody, but he +forgot which was his left, and steered 'em into the bank before they +had rowed twenty strokes." + +"I am not likely to do that, Stubbs," said Mr. Binney, slightly +offended. "I'm not a child. I'm a man with a head on my shoulders, as +Mirrilees has often told me, but all the same I wish it were all over." + +Just then Mirrilees himself came into the room and looked a little +disturbed at finding Mr. Binney there. It was quite easy to treat him +as a freshman of no importance when he was by himself, but in the +presence of his son Mirrilees found the position awkward. + +"You're bound to catch Pembroke to-night, I think," he said shyly, "and +I should certainly think you will go head on Saturday if everything +goes well." + +"I feel so nervous, you know, Mirrilees," said poor little Mr. Binney. +"It's all very well for you young fellows who are used to it, but it's +all new to me, and it's no use pretending I feel at my ease." + +"Oh, for heaven's sake don't lose your head," said Mirrilees anxiously, +"or Third will bump you to a certainty. They're not so good as you +are, but they always go off with a rush, and may hustle you a bit at +first. If they don't catch you before Grassy you'll keep away all +right, and ought to run into Pembroke at Ditton Corner." + +"Third's pretty good," said Lucius. "They're not to be sneezed at. We +generally row faster than we are expected to." + +Then followed a long discussion between Lucius and Mirrilees upon the +respective merits of the two boats, which was not calculated to allay +Mr. Binney's nervousness, so he took his leave, and wandered about +again until lunch time, more disconsolate than ever. A hundred times +he wished he had never joined a boat club and even that he had never +come up to Cambridge. + +He passed a very trying few hours until it was time to go down to the +boat-house. During the long row down to the starting-point he +discovered that he had not entirely forgotten all that he had learnt +about the art of steering and felt a little better. But when the crew +got out of the boat and waited about in the drizzling rain for the +first gun his fears returned and he was unable to take any part in the +mild horse-play with which the rest of the crew beguiled the interval. +The bustle of getting into the boat again and seeing that everything +was right with stretchers, rowlocks, and steering-gear, revived him a +little, but during that awful minute before the last gun, when the boat +was shoved out and the men sat forward with every nerve on edge, while +the coach stood on the bank, watch in hand, telling off the relentless +seconds, Mr. Binney's face of gloom and despair was a picture to +behold. He was convinced that he was going to drop the chain so that +it would foul the rudder lines, or not drop it at all, or pull the +wrong string, or perform one of those mistakes to which the best of +coxswains are liable at these terrible moments. + +But the gun went off at last, and before Mr. Binney had time to realise +that they were fairly off, the boat was swinging down the river and he +himself was steering as straight as an arrow towards the vivid blue of +the Pembroke cox's blazer, feeling as capable and clear-headed as he +had ever done in his life. + +At first it seemed almost impossible to believe that they would ever +make up the distance which lay between them and the boat which was +moving along so steadily in front of them. But they had not rowed +twenty strokes before Mr. Binney realised that they were slowly +creeping up. + +A wild exultation took hold of him. "We're gaining!" he cried. + +Stroke's face was immovable, but he quickened up slightly. Another +thirty strokes and there was only a length between the two boats. Then +Pembroke spurted and began to draw away. + +Mr. Binney's face fell. "We're losing ground!" he said, but Stroke +made no answer. His eyes were fixed upon something past Mr. Binney's +head, and our hero suddenly woke up to the fact that the cries of: +"Third! Third!" which came from the bank behind him, were now much +nearer and almost as loud as those of "First! First!" from their own +supporters alongside. + +A panic seized him, and he quickly turned his head and saw the nose of +the Third Trinity boat within six feet of his own. As he did so, he +unconsciously pulled one of his strings and the pursuing boat shot up +to within two feet. + +"Steady, there, steady!" growled Stroke, with an awful frown. + +Mr. Binney pulled himself together and set his teeth, determined to +think of nothing but the Pembroke boat, which had now increased its +lead to a length and a half. + +"How far are they ahead?" asked Stroke, in a low voice. + +Mr. Binney told him. Stroke quickened up and Mr. Binney had the +delight of feeling the boat shoot away under him, while a tremendous +roar from the men on the bank told him that Third Trinity was being +left behind and that all danger of being bumped by them was over for +the present. + +Up and up went the boat; the length and a half was lessened to a +length, then to half a length, then to a few feet. The Pembroke stroke +quickened, and drew away for a few seconds, but the spurt soon died +down. First Trinity went on gaining. The Pembroke cox began to wash +them off with his rudder. + +They had now reached the Red Grind, and Ditton Corner was close ahead. +Mr. Binney bided his time and crept in a trifle closer to the bank. +The nose of his boat began to dance up alongside the stern of the one +in front. Then the Pembroke cox made a mistake and steered into the +river. "We've got them," yelled Mr. Binney. + +Stroke made a mighty effort, which was answered by Pembroke, too late, +for the Trinity boat was shaving the corner, while they were right out +in the river. Mr. Binney held his course until the nose of his boat +was level with No. 5's rigger. Then he pulled his left string sharply +and ran into them just behind their coxswain's seat. + +"Well steered," said Stroke quietly, as he rested on his oar. +"Couldn't have been done better." And Mr. Binney tasted the joys of +paradise. + +The next day Mr. Binney's nervousness had vanished entirely. He +thirsted to be again in the fray, and looked forward keenly to +repeating the triumph of the previous afternoon. Needless to say he +wrote a long, exultant letter to Mrs. Higginbotham, recounting his +success and the honour it had brought him. Lucius and Dizzy came round +in the morning to congratulate him and to wish him luck in the coming +race. + +"Of course I wish Third had bumped them," said Lucius, as they walked +down Jesus Lane together, "but still the governor would have been so +sorry for himself that it's just as well they didn't." + +"You would have had your screw docked, Lucy, if Third had caught them," +said Dizzy, "so you may consider yourself jolly lucky they kept away." + +"Oh, that's all over now," said Lucius. "The Governor behaves much +more respectably than he did last term. If that business had gone on I +really don't think I could have stopped up here." + +Mr. Binney received their congratulations with equanimity. He had +jumped from the depths of self-distrust to the height of complaisance, +and now felt that if he had gone to Putney with the University crew the +victory of Cambridge over Oxford would have been assured. + +"Oh, it's as simple as anything," he said, in answer to their +congratulations. "I can't think what ever can have made me feel so +nervous yesterday." + +"Don't you be too cocksure about it, Mr. Binney," said Dizzy. "I knew +a fellow once who rode in a steeple-chase. He'd got by far the best +nag, and the odds were four to one on him. But he was so certain of +winning that he forgot he was riding in a race at all, and got off to +pick a flower after he had jumped the first hurdle. By the time he +remembered where he was and got on again, the other fellows had reached +the winning post. The bookies nearly murdered him." + +Mr. Binney was not in a frame of mind to take warning by this awful +example of forgetfulness. He was so talkative in the changing room +that he was severely snubbed by the Captain of the boat. Jesus, the +boat in front of them this evening, ought to have presented no +difficulties and would certainly have been caught by Pembroke in the +long reach the night before if First Trinity had not made their bump at +Ditton. Mr. Binney steered very badly at Grassy and lost a lot of +ground. His steering round Ditton Corner was a little better, but +nothing like so good as on the previous evening, and again Jesus got +away. First Trinity made their bump at the railway bridge, but the men +had had a hard race instead of a very easy one, and some unpleasant +things were said to our hero when the race was at last over. + +The next day Mr. Binney had learned a lesson, steered well, and caught +Lady Margaret at Ditton much in the same way as Pembroke had been +bumped on the first night. + +First Trinity were now in the second place on the river, and had their +work cut out for them to bump Trinity Hall on the last night. + +It was generally agreed that they were slightly the better boat, but +whether they were good enough to overcome the advantage that the head +boat always has in rowing in clear water, was a disputed point. They +had at any rate nothing to fear from the boat behind them. Mr. +Binney's previous experience had brought him into the right state of +mind to enable him to do his best. The three bumps he had already made +had given him confidence, and his mistakes of the second night +preserved him from being over-confident. + +First Trinity made up their distance by the time they had reached the +Red Grind, and from that time there was never more than a few feet of +daylight between the two boats until the end of the race. At Ditton +they overlapped, but Mr. Binney made his shot too early, and the Hall +just managed to keep away. The enthusiasm from the supporters of the +Crescent, standing or running on the banks, had the effect of steadying +Mr. Binney's nerves. A ding-dong race ensued, right up the Long Reach, +but with all their exertion the First Trinity men were unable to +increase their distance. At the railway bridge the nose of the +pursuing boat was a foot past the rudder of the other. But Mr. Binney +knew that if he made a shot at them now all was lost. + +"Plug it in," he said in a low voice to Stroke, "and we've got them." + +Stroke did plug it in. He was nobly seconded in one last despairing +effort by the men behind him. The nose of the First Trinity boat crept +slowly but surely up, Mr. Binney pulled his left line just in the nick +of time, and First Trinity bumped the head boat not a dozen yards from +the winning post. + +A very proud man was Mr. Binney that evening when everything was over, +when they had rowed back to the boat-house with the heavy flag flapping +behind them and the cheering crowd of men accompanying them on the +bank. When he had changed and gone home to his rooms with the +pleasures of an amusing bump supper in the hall before him, he sat down +in front of his fire and went over in his mind the causes for +self-congratulation. At last he had done something which raised him +out of the common ruck of University men, something that could never be +taken away from him. He saw in imagination his rudder with the Trinity +coat-of-arms, the names and weights of the crew and the cox, and the +conquered colleges emblazoned upon it hanging up in his hall in Russell +Square. His imagination did not stop there. He saw other rudders +nailed up by its side, of which at least one should bear the combined +arms of Oxford and Cambridge. He felt that he had acquitted himself so +as to earn him Mrs. Higginbotham's undying admiration, and visited a +telegraph office immediately upon his return in order to send that +excellent woman the earliest information of his brilliant achievement. + +At the bump supper that evening Mr. Binney was the gayest of the gay. +He did not exceed his usual allowance of wine. This, in spite of the +unmannerly taunts of the _New Court Chronicle_, he had never yet done +and would have been ashamed of doing. But he was so excited by his +success that other members of the party who had not been so careful as +himself gave him full credit for having done so, and laughed +uproariously at his sallies of wit, clapped him vigorously on the back, +and displayed all the usual signs of the best of good fellowship. + +Mr. Binney made a speech. He always did make a speech whenever there +was an opportunity. He said that this was the proudest moment of his +life. (Cheers.) He should despise himself if he thought otherwise. +(Cheers.) He thought that the cox was the most important man in a +boat. (Loud cries of "No! No!" and laughter.) Well, if he wasn't the +most important, at any rate, they couldn't get on without him, and he +was very proud to find himself in a position of that sort. He had had +triumphs in his life before now (cheers and laughter), but they were as +nothing to this. He didn't know how to say enough about it, although +he was used to public speaking. (Laughter, cries of "Union.") Some +gentleman had mentioned the word "Union." Well, he had thought at one +time that success at the Union was the best sort of success that +Cambridge could afford. He didn't think so now. Give him success on +the river--he would leave all the rest to gentlemen not so fortunate as +himself. (Loud applause and cries of "Sit down.") He saw around him a +great many friends. (Laughter.) He hoped he might call them friends. +(Cries of "Certainly," "By all means.") They were all jolly good +fellows, and so say all of us. (Cheers.) He had said before that this +was the proudest moment of his life. He would say it again. +(Laughter, and the rest of Mr. Binney's speech, which he appeared to be +about to begin all over again, was drowned by vociferous cheers which +were gradually rounded off into "For he's a jolly good fellow," sung in +chorus by everyone present.) + +At the close of the evening, just before twelve o'clock, as Mr. Binney +was going out of college, arm-in-arm with two jovial companions, the +gate was opened to admit Piper and one or two more football players who +had gained a great victory over Dublin University that afternoon in the +last match of the season, and had since celebrated the occasion by a +more protracted dinner than was good for them. + +Piper was, in fact, very drunk, and his potations always had the effect +of making him extremely quarrelsome. At this particular juncture he +was, in American phraseology, "looking for trouble." He found it in +the obnoxious person of his late butt, Mr. Binney, who came towards him +smiling, his gown put on inside out, over his somewhat disordered +evening clothes. + +The sight of Mr. Binney roused Piper's smouldering ill-humour to the +point of frenzy. With a muttered execration he went for our hero. Mr. +Binney saw him coming, and with a shriek of terror, turned round, +loosening his hold upon his two companions, and fled terrified back +towards the hall. + +Piper gave a yell, and started off in chase, but lost his footing at +the two steps leading into the Court, and enabled Mr. Binney to get a +clear start as far as the fountain, before his pursuer was up and after +him again. + +His two friends made no attempt to protect him. They shrieked with +laughter at the ridiculous spectacle, and rolled about doubled up in +their ecstasy of amusement. + +But fortunately for Mr. Binney the Great Court was full of his late +companions of the feast. "Save me, save me!" cried the poor little +man, as he ran towards a group of them near the kitchen staircase. +Piper was still a _bete noir_ to a great many of the rowing men, +although with his exception the feud between oarsmen and footballers +was now quite healed. Mr. Binney ran through the astonished group, +down the narrow passage leading into the Hostels. They closed up their +ranks and let Piper run into them. There was great confusion for the +moment, and cries of "Now then, sir, where are you coming to?" and the +like. Piper forgot for the moment where he _was_ going to, and in the +meantime his companions came up. One of them was Howden, who was in +the effusive after-dinner stage. + +"You're the fellows who went head of the river, aren't you?" he cried. +"You're jolly noble fellows all the lot of you, and I shall be proud to +shake hands with you all round. We're the fellows who have beaten the +Irishmen by two goals and a try to nothing. And that's all right, +isn't it?" + +It appeared to be all right, certainly, for the two groups immediately +fraternised with mutual expressions of admiration. And even Piper was +so overborne by the general good feeling that he relinquished his +intention of spilling Mr. Binney's blood, and allowed himself to be +drawn off, while our hero crept round by Neville's Court, through the +screens and out again through the Great Gate, still somewhat +frightened, and by no means so hilarious as he had been five minutes +before. + +The next morning Mr. Binney woke up feeling rather cheap, but not +without a thrill of pride when he recalled the glorious achievements of +the last four days. He went to the chapel which he was accustomed to +attend twice on a Sunday, and thought that every member of the +congregation must have heard of his prowess on the river, and be eyeing +him with admiration as he handed round the plate at the close of the +service, clad in his undergraduate's gown. As he sat at his solitary +lunch Howden came in. + +"Hullo, Binney, old chap," he said, "here you are at last. I've been +in once or twice to try and find you this morning. You did jolly well +in the races. I was there on Friday and saw you make your bump." + +"It's a splendid thing, you know, Howden," said Mr. Binney, "taking +part in a great contest like that. You know what it is, for you're a +celebrated athlete yourself. It makes you feel warm all over, doesn't +it?" + +"It makes you feel black and blue all over," said Howden, "after a game +like yesterday. We didn't do so badly, Binney, did we? We never +expected to beat them like that. Look here, I've got some of the +fellows who were playing yesterday coming to supper with me this +evening, and two of the Irish chaps who are staying here over Sunday +are coming as well. You come too, Binney. We shall have a jolly rowdy +evening, quite like old times. You're out of training now, and you +haven't had a bust since the beginning of the term. Eight o'clock in +my rooms." + +Mr. Binney looked shocked. + +"What, on Sunday evening?" he exclaimed. "My dear Howden, I couldn't +entertain the idea for a moment." + +"Oh, well," said Howden, somewhat abashed, "we shan't be doing any +harm. You must feed somewhere even if it is Sunday." + +"I always dine in hall on Sunday," said Mr. Binney, "and go to church +afterwards. I am sorry I can't join you, Howden, although, if it had +been on any other night in the week, I should have been delighted. +Those dinners we used to have were rather good fun, weren't they? I +shouldn't mind another one now if we could keep it a bit quieter. I'll +tell you what, Howden, we _will_ have another dinner in my rooms +to-morrow night; just to celebrate our going head." + +"What, the old lot!" exclaimed Howden. "That will be ripping, Binney. +I've never had such jolly dinners since I've been up here as yours +were. You're such a capital good host, you know." + +"Well, I like entertaining my friends," said Mr. Binney, much +gratified. "I used to enjoy those dinners myself, but they certainly +were getting rather too rowdy. We must keep a bit quieter to-morrow." + +"Right you are," said Howden, and he and Mr. Binney drew out a list of +half a dozen constellations of the athletic world, who had already had +experience of Mr. Binney's hospitality in days gone by, and might be +supposed to be willing to partake of it again. + +Mr. Binney's dinner was a repetition of those which had brought him +into disrepute during the previous term, only, instead of being quieter +than had been customary with those entertainments, it was a noisier +revel than any of them. Bumpers had to be drunk to the First Trinity +Boat Club, and to the cox of its first Lent boat. This was done before +the fish came on. By the time the _entree_ had made its appearance +success to the University Rugby Football Club had been duly honoured, +and the healths of the various members of it there present brought them +to dessert in a state of hilarious good fellowship. Mr. Binney usually +objected to bumpers, but it was pointed out to him that his refusal to +empty them would be considered a cowardly insult to his guests in whose +honour they were proposed. + +Alas! before dinner was well over, Mr. Binney was in a state the mere +imagination of which would have made him blush with shame in his more +collected moments. His face was flushed, his speech thick, and his +laughter meaningless but incessant. His guests were, most of them, in +a similar state, and the unhappy little man, instead of mildly rebuking +them for their excesses, as he had been accustomed to do, encouraged +them to further libations, and filled their glasses himself with an +unsteady hand, and giggling exhortations to make a night of it. At a +later stage of the evening Mr. Binney was on his legs making the +inevitable speech. It was an entirely incoherent speech, but his +hearers applauded it no less for that. When a gleam of intelligence +did detach itself from Mr. Binney's rambling procession of verbiage and +pierce their heated brains, the cheers and hammerings on the table rose +to fever pitch, and spurred on the poor little object to still greater +exertions. During one of these interludes, when the applause was at +its height and Mr. Binney stood leaning against the table with glassy +eye and fatuous smile waiting for the din to subside, and bracing +himself up for a further attempt, the door of the room opened, and a +tall black figure, its face wearing an expression of scandalised +amazement, stood framed in the door-way. It was the Reverend Dr. +Toller come to expostulate with the wandering sheep of his otherwise +irreproachable flock. + +Mr. Binney was the first to notice him. He frowned slightly in a +determined effort to regain his scattered senses. Then the amiable +smile spread once more over his face as he recognised his friend. + +"Dorrertoller!" he cried, in a delighted impulse of hospitable welcome. +"Come in, my dear sir, and dring a glass o' wine. You see me, +Dorrertoller, s'rounded by m' friends, celebrelating merrificent +vickery, boclub. Genelmel, 'low me, ole friend, Dorrertoller. Come +in, ole boy. Mayself tome. Siddown." + +"Mr. Binney!" said the good doctor in an awful tone. "Are you aware, +sir, of the terrible scandal you are bringing upon yourself and your +friends by this unseemly--this disgraceful conduct?" + +"Thashalri, Dorrertoll," said the unhappy Mr. Binney. "Siddow. All +ole frells here." + +It would ill become us to protract the account of this shameful scene. +Dr. Toller, shocked and horrified beyond all bounds, lifted up his +voice in expostulation and reproof to the best of his ability, but all +in vain. Mr. Binney was past taking heed of rebukes, and wandered +foolishly along, pressing the doctor to make one of the party, and +drink the health of some of the best fellows he was ever likely to +meet. That at least was the intention of his invitation, but his +enunciation not being so clear as could be wished, the warmth of his +welcome could only be gathered from his engaging smile and his +ineffectual attempts to drag a chair up to the table, a chair on which +one of his guests happened already to be sitting. Most of the other +men took Dr. Toller for a Proctor and kept quiet, while Mr. Binney used +his utmost endeavours to induce him to join them. They returned again +to their previous state of merriment when the Doctor had left the room, +having perceived that anything that he might have to say to Mr. Binney +would have to be kept until the next morning. + +Later on in the evening, a Proctor did pay them a visit, the noise +having become so insistent that it was bound to attract the attention +of any one passing down Jesus Lane. He took the names of all the +party, but Mr. Binney went to bed in happy oblivion of the event, as +well as of the advent of his pastor, and woke up in the morning with a +bad headache and a dim impression that something had happened the night +before which would cause him great uneasiness if only he could remember +what it was. + +As he sat with throbbing head and smarting eyeballs over a late cup of +tea, which he dignified by the name of breakfast, a "bull-dog" was +announced, who brought him a slip of paper requesting him to call on +the Junior Proctor at a stated time. + +Mr. Binney groaned. He had a dim idea that he had had an unfinished +conversation with a Proctor at some previous state of his existence, +but he could not remember when. He supposed it must have been during +the previous evening, but he could not remember having gone out after +dinner. + +A little later on, a similar notice was brought to him from his Tutor. +Mr. Binney was in such a low state that he actually shed tears at this +fresh misfortune. He must have done something very bad indeed. If +only he could remember what it was! But he couldn't, and his head was +too painful to allow him to exert it to any great extent. All he knew +was that he would never be able to hold up that head again. He would +be sent down for a certainty. He would be eternally disgraced in the +eyes of all his friends, before whom he had been used to bear himself +so proudly. He grew cold when he thought of what Mrs. Higginbotham +would say to him. Then his thoughts flew with a deadly sinking of +heart to Dr. Toller and his fellow-officers in the congregation of +which Dr. Toller was the shining leader. At this moment there was a +ring at the bell, and in a few moments Dr. Toller himself was +announced. Mr. Binney buried his head in the cushions of his armchair +and wept aloud. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +NEMESIS + +Dr. Toller left Mr. Binney an hour afterwards, chastened and repentant. +The full enormity of his crime had been brought home to him. His only +plea was that this was the first time such a dreadful thing had +happened. Dr. Toller did not refer in direct terms to the _New Court +Chronicle_, as he remembered in time that his wife had not told him +before he left home how its numbers had fallen into her hands. But he +drew from Mr. Binney an account of the occurrences of the term, and +amongst them of the attack that Piper had made upon him in his paper. +"I went in for revelry to some extent last term," Mr. Binney explained, +"but, even then, nothing of the sort that happened last night took +place. This term my life has been hitherto irreproachable, and I did +not deserve these attacks." + +Dr. Toller was pleased to hear it. Poor Mr. Binney was so ashamed of +himself and looked such a pitiable object bundled up in his armchair +with a despairing look on his white face and black rings under his +eyes, that he readily promised to keep the account of the previous +night's orgie from Mr. Binney's friends in Bloomsbury, and before he +went gave the repentant sinner full absolution and a great deal of very +good advice. + +When the doctor had removed himself it was time for Mr. Binney to call +on the Proctor, who was a Fellow of Jesus College. Mr. Binney crawled +along down the sunny side of the lane feeling very miserable. But the +interview was not quite so painful as he had imagined. The Proctor was +a young man with a keen sense of humour. He tried to impart a fitting +air of severity into his strictures on the disgraceful scene he had +interrupted, but spoilt it all by bursting into a peal of laughter in +the middle of his lecture. After that there was nothing further to be +done but to extort a heavy fine from the culprit and to let him go. +Mr. Binney felt somewhat relieved as he walked out through the gates of +Jesus down the passage into the lane, but his heart sank again like +lead as he remembered his coming interview with his Tutor. He had just +time enough to go into his rooms and drink a glass of milk and soda, +before it was time to repair to Trinity College to undergo the ordeal +of Mr. Rimington's displeasure. + +Mr. Binney had to wait some time in the Tutor's ante-room. His +thoughts were very bitter as he sat turning over the pages of a book, +keenly aware of the titters and whispers of the men who were waiting +with him. + +The Tutor's face, when Mr. Binney at last entered the inner room, was +not reassuring. It wore a severe, and, to Mr. Binney's overstrung +perceptions, it seemed a contemptuous look. Mr. Rimington did not +shake hands with his pupil as was his wont, but motioned him to a chair +and plunged immediately _in medias res_. + +"You know, of course, why I have sent for you, Mr. Binney," he said. +"I have no intention of expostulating with you. I have tried that +already, and it proved to be of no avail. I simply have to say that +the college can no longer put up with the way you choose to behave +yourself, and you must go down to-day." + +"What? go down for good, sir?" said poor Mr. Binney in a broken voice. + +"Yes, I think so," said the Tutor. + +"Oh, surely you can't be so hard as that," pleaded Mr. Binney. "Think +of the disgrace, sir." + +"I do think of the disgrace," said the Tutor, with a short laugh. "I +wish you had thought of it yourself a little sooner." + +It will be remembered that on the last occasion of a conversation +between Mr. Rimington and Mr. Binney, the latter had taken a very high +line, for which he had subsequently apologised, but not quite +adequately. Mr. Rimington had become very tired of Mr. Binney's +methods of speech and conduct, and had made up his mind to speak +shortly and sharply, and not to allow any discussion of his decision. +He was not, however, prepared for the total breakdown of Mr. Binney's +opposition to his authority. The poor little creature sitting crumpled +up before him in abject and hot-eyed misery was a very different person +from the combative self-sufficient gentleman who had resisted his +warnings in such a high-handed fashion when he had before animadverted +on his conduct, so he did not refuse to listen when Mr. Binney began to +plead with him in a piteous, broken-hearted manner. + +"I know I have disgraced myself, sir," he said, "I feel it deeply. But +such a thing will never happen again, and it has never happened before." + +"Oh, pardon me, Mr. Binney," said the Tutor. "This affair is only the +climax to a consistent course of such behaviour. I have had reason to +speak to you before about it. You can't possibly have forgotten that." + +"Not about drunkenness, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I was drunk last +night, you know. I confess it. That has never happened before, and +will never happen again." + +"There are degrees of culpability, of course, in these matters," said +Mr. Rimington. "Where you seem to disagree with me is in thinking that +these disorderly meetings are allowable at all when a man of your age +and influence takes the lead in setting all rules of order and good +conduct aside." + +"I don't disagree with you at all, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I am very +sorry that anything of the sort has ever happened in my rooms. I +promise you, if you will only give me another chance, that it shall +never happen again." + +"You forget, Mr. Binney, that I ventured to impress my views upon you +at the end of last term, and warned you that if anything of the sort +happened again I should be compelled to take a serious view of it. The +first man I had to deal with at the beginning of this term had got into +trouble through--er--his companionship with you. And further than that +your name has become synonymous with disorderly behaviour throughout +the University." + +What would not Mr. Binney have given at that moment to recall the +vanished days and spend them to better advantage? The contemptible +light in which he must appear to men of his own standing was borne in +upon him like a flood, and he felt that it would indeed be better if he +left Cambridge for good and never showed his face there again. + +"I deserve to be sent down in disgrace," he said feebly. "There is +only one reason why I beg you to exercise your clemency--for the sake +of my boy." + +Mr. Rimington's mild eyes flashed fire. "I can scarcely trust myself +to speak to you on that subject," he said. "If I do so it is because I +feel it my duty as a clergyman to try and bring home to you the +enormity of your conduct towards your son. Are you incapable of----" + +"Oh, don't, don't," interrupted Mr. Binney in a broken-hearted voice. +"I see it all. Nothing you could say would be so severe as what I say +to myself. I can't bear it. I can't really. But just think what an +awful thing it would be for him to have it said that his father was +sent down for drunkenness. He would bear the brand of it all his life." + +"It seems to me," said the Tutor dryly, "that you have already given +him something that he will have reason to be ashamed of all his life. +I have a great admiration for your son. I tell you candidly, Mr. +Binney, that I don't know one other undergraduate who could have held +up his head in Cambridge after what he has gone through." + +"Oh, don't say any more, I beg of you," cried Mr. Binney, cut to the +heart. "And don't make things worse for him by sending me down." + +"If I thought for a moment that your staying up here would make things +easier for him," said Mr. Rimington, "I own I should hesitate, although +I don't say that my decision would be altered. But it seems to me that +the very kindest course to pursue on his account would be to prevent +his having any further cause to be shamed by your conduct up here. No, +Mr. Binney. You must go down this afternoon. I have spoken to one or +two of my colleagues about it, and our decision is irrevocable. I see +no use in protracting this painful interview." + +Mr. Binney pleaded and besought, but all to no avail, and left his +Tutor's presence at last, a disgraced and despairing man. + +The feelings of Lucius towards his father are too painful a subject to +dilate upon. Never surely, since the wide doors of Cambridge +University were opened to all comers, had any of its members been +placed in a more disagreeable position. Looking back on this trying +time in after years, Lucius wondered how he could ever have endured +life at Cambridge for a single day. But he had attained to that state +of sympathetic intimacy with his cousin in which he could pour out some +of his troubles to her when they met, and be gently but effectually +consoled for them. Betty had never met Mr. Binney, but she knew him by +sight, and nourished a fierce and bitter enmity towards him. + +Lucius met his cousin, on the morning after his father's fall, outside +the lecture room of St. John's College, where she was engaged for an +hour three mornings in the week. The other girls who were with her +gave Lucius a glance and then hurried off through the gate, leaving +them alone. + +"Good-bye, Lucius," she said hastily, "I must go. I don't know what +those girls are running away for like that." + +"Do let me walk back with you, Betty," said Lucius. "I'm so beastly +miserable, I don't know what to do." + +"Very well, then. Just for once," said Betty, after a look at his +face. "We'll go along the Backs." + +"I suppose you haven't heard about my father last night, have you?" +asked Lucius, as they made their way across the bridge. + +"No. What about him?" asked Betty. + +"I really sometimes think he's going off his head," said Lucius +despondently. "He was so pleased at his boat going head of the river +that he gave a great feed. There was a terrific row. In the middle of +it the old fool I have to go and hear preach at home turned up. +Goodness knows what brought him. He came to see me this morning just +after breakfast, and seems to think I must have been in it too, +although he knew I wasn't there. He began a long solemn jaw, but I was +so sick I shut him up. He's an awful old outsider, and he's got +nothing to do with me, even if I had done something he didn't approve +of, which I haven't." + +"But it doesn't matter what _he_ thinks, does it?" asked Betty with all +the scorn of the rector's daughter against a member of a usurping caste. + +"I don't know," said Lucius dubiously. "His wife is a spiteful old +woman. Of course it will get to her ears and then it will be all over +the place. There's one good thing, I have been away from home such a +lot, and have so many friends outside, that it won't matter so much to +me as it might have done. But it will be awful for the poor old +governor. I don't think he knows what he's laying up for himself." + +"Oh, I shouldn't bother my head about him if I were you," said Betty +airily. "It's his own fault, and he's got himself to thank for it. +It's you I'm thinking of." Then she blushed a little. + +Lucius blushed too. "You are so awfully kind," he began, "and----" + +"Yes. Thank you," interrupted Betty, hastily. + +"But I really shouldn't know what to do if it wasn't for you," +persisted Lucius. "It's like----" + +"Yes, I know," interrupted Betty again. "But you haven't told me all +about last night yet, have you?" + +"No," said Lucius, his face falling again. "The row reached such a +pitch that the Proctors came in. My gyp told me that the governor was +going to be hauled this morning, and I shouldn't wonder if he were sent +down." + +"Well, that will be all the better for you, won't it?" inquired Betty, +unmoved at the awful announcement. + +"I don't know. I haven't thought of that yet," Lucius admitted. "But +I'm afraid it will kill the poor old governor. I shall go and see him +when I get back. I'm awfully sorry for him, although he has been so +tiresome. But don't let's talk any more about it. We're nearly there. +I say, Betty----" + +"I think you'd better go back now," said Betty. "You've come quite far +enough," and Lucius was not bold enough to disobey her. + +He found Mr. Binney just returned from his visit to his Tutor. "It's +all over, Lucius. I'm sent down," he said hopelessly. + +Lucius was at a loss for words. The humour of the situation suddenly +struck him, and he had hard work to prevent himself smiling. + +"I've been a bad father to you, my boy," went on Mr. Binney. "I see it +all now. I wish I had behaved differently. But it is too late. All +is over. The blow has fallen. I am a disgraced man." + +"Oh, come, cheer up, father," said Lucius. "I should think they would +give you another show if you promise to keep quiet in future." + +"No, they won't," said Mr. Binney. "They think I am spoiling your +chances at Cambridge. And they are quite right--oh, _absolutely_ +right." + +"What nonsense," said Lucius. "Is it only on my account they have sent +you down?" + +"That chiefly," said Mr. Binney, with the calm voice of despair. "But +they have lost faith in me. And quite right too. Oh, _quite_ right." + +"Well, I'll tell you what, father," said Lucius, "I'll go and see +Rimington and ask him to give you another chance. We're rather pals, +and he might listen, although it's rather cheek my tackling him." + +"Oh, Lucius, if you only would," exclaimed Mr. Binney, grasping his son +eagerly by the arm. "I believe he would listen to you. I do really, +and it's my only chance. I thought this morning that I shouldn't care +to stay at Cambridge any longer after what has happened. But I can't +bear the thought of going down like this. It is too awful." + +"Of course not," said Lucius. "I'll go at once." + +Mr. Rimington was still receiving when Lucius presented himself in his +anteroom. After a time he found himself cordially greeted by his +father's Tutor, and sat down without an idea as to how he should begin +what he had to say. + +"I've come about my father," he said, reddening and playing with the +tassel of his cap. "I hope you'll give him another chance, sir. It +wasn't altogether his fault that all the noise was made last night, and +he'll be very careful that it doesn't happen again. It will be rather +unpleasant for me if he is sent down," he added. + +"Has your father asked you to come to me?" asked Mr. Rimington. + +"No," said Lucius, "I come of my own accord." + +"Wouldn't you be happier up here if your father were--were at home, +Binney?" + +"I shouldn't be any happier if people could say he had been sent down. +In fact, I don't think I could stand it. He'll keep pretty well in the +background after this, I should think, and I don't much mind his being +up here if he does that." + +"I can't hold out any hopes of our decision being altered," said Mr. +Rimington after a pause. "It is not I alone who am responsible for it. +But I think that your wishes in the matter should certainly be +considered. I can't say more than that at present, and, as I say, your +father had better not entertain any hopes of our decision being +reversed. If there is anything more to say, I will write to him in +London." + +With this slender thread of hope Mr. Binney travelled home to Russell +Square that afternoon in sad and lonely dejection. His head still +ached after his excesses of the previous night, and his mood was so +dark that he put off the confession which he knew he should have to +make to Mrs. Higginbotham, until the next morning. As he dined in +solitary state that evening, attended by his neat and soft-footed +maids, he found himself wondering how the habits and customs of twenty +years could have broken down so completely under the influence of new +surroundings. Two years ago he would have been the first to hold up +pious hands of horror at the mere mention of an orgie such as he had +taken part in the night before. And, having returned once more to his +accustomed manner of life, he felt just as far apart from it as he +would have done then. But he could not keep his thoughts away for long +from the dark fact that he had just been expelled from the University +for continuous bad conduct, and it will be agreed that this cannot have +been a pleasant recollection for a middle-aged gentleman with a +grown-up son. + +Dr. Toller had promised Mr. Binney that he would keep to himself all +mention of the scene he had surprised. His doing so was only another +example of the eternal self-complaisance of human nature. Dr. Toller +was about as capable of keeping anything to himself that his wife +wanted to hear about, as a puppy is of holding a stick that its master +wants to take away. At twelve o'clock Dr. Toller returned from +Cambridge to the wife of his bosom. By a quarter past, Mrs. Toller was +in possession of the main outlines of his story, which had been filled +in before the half hour struck by all the details that Dr. Toller's +memory could supply. + +"You won't tell anyone else what has happened, my dear, will you?" said +Dr. Toller, when his wife had extracted all the information from him he +was capable of affording. + +"I shall tell what I please to whomsoever I please," said Mrs. Toller. + +"But, my dear, my promise," expostulated the doctor. + +"Bother your promise!" said Mrs. Toller, as she went out of the room. + +After breakfast the next morning Mr. Binney, to whom another day had +brought no cessation of the gnawing pains of remorse, took his courage +in both hands, and putting on his hat and coat, went round to Woburn +Square. + +The maid who opened the door to him gave a little start. "Mrs. +Higginbotham is not at home, sir," she said. "But she told me to give +you this little parcel if you happened to call." + +Mr. Binney took the parcel, neatly tied up and directed in Mrs. +Higginbotham's well-known writing. "Do you know when Mrs. Higginbotham +will be in?" he asked. + +The maid hesitated. "She told me to say she was not at home, sir," she +repeated awkwardly, and Mr. Binney went down the steps with the +terrible realisation hammering at his brain, that Mrs. Higginbotham had +heard of his disgrace and refused to receive him. + +He waited until he had returned to the seclusion of his own library +before he opened the packet which she had directed to him. + +It contained all the letters he had ever written to her. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LUCIUS FINDS A BACKWATER + +It was ten o'clock of a late April morning, one of those hot sunny days +which sometimes make it not unfitting that the term which in Cambridge +begins in April and ends in the middle of June should be known as the +Summer Term. The morning in Cambridge, as has been explained, is +usually devoted to books, but here was Mr. Lucius Binney of Trinity +College in a very light grey flannel suit and a straw hat apparently +making preparations for some sort of an expedition. He had collected +from different corners of the room a Japanese umbrella, two plethoric +silken cushions and a large box of chocolate creams. He put them down +on the table and looked for a moment longingly at his collection of +pipes, but finally contented himself with filling a cigarette case, +which he slipped into his pocket. At this juncture a step was heard +approaching. Lucius had just time to cover the box of chocolate creams +with a cushion before the door was opened and Mr. Benjamin Stubbs +entered the room. He was in cap and gown and carried a notebook. + +"Holloa!" he exclaimed, "going on the Backs? Not a bad idea this fine +morning. I've a good mind to cut lecture and come with you." + +"Oh I shouldn't do that, Dizzy, if I were you," said Lucius, "you'd +better go and hear what Mansell has got to say. I can crib your notes +afterwards." + +"We can both crib 'em off Hare," said Dizzy. "I should like a paddle +in a canoe. Lend us a hat and I'll leave these things here." + +"I haven't got another hat except that one with the Third Trinity +colours and you can't wear that." + +"Well, you Juggins, you can wear that and lend me the one you've got +on." + +"The other doesn't fit me very well," objected Lucius. + +"What rot! why, you wear it every day. I'll tell you what it is, young +man, you've got some game on and you don't want me to come. What is +it?" + +Dizzy here took up one of the cushions on the table and disclosed the +box of chocolates which it hid. Enlightenment diffused itself over his +intelligent features. + +"Oh, I see, yes," he said, "Good morning, Binney, I'm afraid I shall be +late for lecture." And he betook himself out of the room. + +"Silly ass!" soliloquised Lucius. Then he gathered up his properties +and made his way out across the Great Court, which lay wide and still +beneath a smiling April sky, through the Hostel and down the narrow +lane which leads to the river and the raft, where in summer-time a +flotilla of boats and canoes is moored under the trees. Lucius +selected a Canadian canoe and deposited a cushion at either end, +supplementing those supplied by the boatmen. The chocolate creams he +stowed carefully behind his own cushion, and taking his seat pushed out +into the open water through the maze of pleasure boats which stretched +half-way across the river. He was almost alone on the water. The +rooks cawed in the high elms which fringe the pleasant gardens by the +river, the whirr of a mowing machine came from some unseen lawn close +by; there was an idle summer feeling in the air. Lucius paddled in a +leisurely manner up the river, past the terraced gardens of Trinity +Hall, the prow of his canoe breaking up the reflection of the beautiful +Clare Bridge as he passed under it, along the spacious level lawn of +King's and under the King's bridge into the darker waters bounded by +the old buildings of Queens'. The illicit tinkling of a piano came +from an open window in the new King's buildings and two men leant idly +on the parapet of the bridge and watched him as he paddled slowly +underneath. When he reached the wooden bridge of Queens', the bridge +which Sir Isaac Newton is said to have erected without a bolt or nut, +he turned round and dropped down the river again. As he neared the +King's bridge he pulled out his watch. + +"She said half-past ten," he murmured to himself. "I suppose she is +bound to be a bit late. Girls always are." + +He lay back on his cushions and allowed the canoe to drift. Opposite +to him was the entrance to a backwater, arched over with trees, and +crossed by a wooden bridge. Lucius surveyed it idly. "I wonder if she +will come down there with me," he said to himself. + +At this moment a fair vision of youth and beauty in diaphanous summer +draperies came into sight on the river bank just above him. Lucius +sprang out on to the bank and knelt down on the grass to hold the canoe +for the fair vision to step into it. It was his cousin Betty. She +looked cool and fresh and not at all as if she was doing a very bold +thing as she stepped into the wobbly craft and settled herself on the +cushions opposite him. + +"This is ripping, Betty," said Lucius. "It is most charming of you to +come out with me like this." + +"You don't think I came for the pleasure of your company, do you?" +inquired Betty. + +"Oh, no, not in the least." + +"How conceited you are! You know you do think it." + +"I assure you, Betty, it never entered my head. When a girl writes to +her cousin and asks him to take her out on the river, he would be a +conceited ass, as you say, to imagine for a moment that she wanted to +go with him." + +"I didn't say I didn't want to go with you. If I must go at all I +would just as soon go with you as any one." + +"I don't know that there's any necessity for you to go at all if you +don't want to." + +"Ah, but you don't know everything." + +"Why did you come, then?" + +"I'll tell you when we get back again. Now paddle up to the Bridge of +Sighs." + +"How mysterious you are! But there's no hurry. Let us go down this +little backwater. You can't think how jolly it is. There are shady +trees on one side and a field with daisies and cows and buttercups and +things on the other." + +"No thank you, I don't want to go down a backwater. I want to paddle +down to St. John's and back." + +"What for?" + +"I shan't tell you yet." + +"Then I shan't paddle." + +"How tiresome you are, Lucius! You spoil all my pleasure in your +society." + +"You said you didn't take any pleasure in my society just now." + +"No more I do. Now paddle along, there's a good boy." + +"Who is that female on the bank taking such an interest in us?" + +"She isn't a female. Don't be rude. She's one of my particular +friends. Now go on please." + +"What is she doing there? Why doesn't she go home?" + +"She will, when we have been up to the Bridge of Sighs and back, and I +shall go with her. Now do paddle on and be quick. I shall get into a +row, you know, if anyone else sees me here." + +"I shan't go on until you tell me what all this is about. Don't get +into a temper. If you kick the bottom of the boat like that your foot +will go through and we shall both be in the water." + +"You really are too provoking, Lucius. I'll never speak to you again +if you don't go on directly." + +Lucius began to paddle on slowly. "Now, tell me," he said, "why you +wanted to come." + +"Well, if you must know, that girl betted me a box of chocolates that I +wouldn't, and I do love them so and I've spent all last quarter's +allowance and can't afford to buy any. Now do go on, Lucius, there's a +good boy. We have only got to get up to the Bridge of Sighs and back, +and I shall get them." + +Lucius stopped again. "I don't know that I want you to get them +particularly," he said, "after what you have said about not wanting to +come with me. Didn't you want to come with me a bit?" + +"No, of course not." + +"Not a little bit?" + +"No." + +"Then I shan't go on." + +"Oh--oh--oh! I feel as if I should like to throw something at you." + +"Well, why don't you? Look, there's the girl on the bank grinning at +you. How pleased she'll be if I let her win." + +"Horrid thing, she is! But I hate you worse still. I feel as if I +could do anything to you now." + +"What, hurt poor little Cousin Lucy? Oh, Betty, for shame!" + +"Well, if you won't go on, turn back then, and I'll get out. Only I'll +never speak to you again as long as I live." + +"I say, Betty, are you very fond of chocolates?" + +"Yes, I am, but I wouldn't sit here for another five minutes for all +the chocolates in the world. Turn round and go back, please." + +Lucius put his hand behind his back, and drew out the big box already +mentioned. + +"Look here; let's stop and eat these here, while that girl looks on. +Then we'll go up to St. John's and back and you can have hers too." + +This plan commended itself to Betty, and she spent a happy ten minutes +while the girl on the bank strolled about and pretended to be admiring +the Chapel of King's and the beautiful College of Clare, which are both +seen to advantage at the point where the canoe had stopped. + +There is a time when even Buszard's most expensive confections cease to +charm. When this time had arrived for Betty, she said, "I don't much +care if I don't get the others now, but I know I shall want them +to-morrow, so paddle on, Lucius. I'm much more pleased with you now." + +"Thank you, Betty," said Lucius, and the canoe proceeded on its way, +under the Clare, Hostel, and Trinity Bridges with the graceful willows +sweeping the water, round the curve where the classical front of the +Trinity library looks severely towards the paddocks and the elms, and +under the wall of the Master of Trinity's garden, where a blossoming +tree showed a mass of delicate pink against the red-tile gables of +Neville's Court, under yet another bridge flanked by the stone eagles +of St. John's, and between the walls of that college until they reached +their goal, the covered bridge, which, through no merit of its own, has +usurped the name of the Bridge of Sighs. + +"Thank you," said Betty. "Now be quick and get back. What a sell for +that girl! and we haven't met anybody to matter either." + +"Plenty of time for that. We've got to get all the way back again. I +didn't tell you before, because I thought you would be frightened, but +you remember Dizzy whom you met in my rooms last term when your mother +was up?" + +"Yes, I hope he isn't coming out, is he?" + +"Well, I'm afraid he is. It's an old standing engagement; he promised +to row a party of Newnham dons--seven of them--on the Backs this +morning." + +For one moment Betty's face blanched with terror. Then she said, "You +are a donkey, Lucius. Hurry up, please." + +But Lucius wasn't going to hurry up. He was very well content with his +present position. Betty reclined opposite to him in a graceful +attitude, the brilliant colour of the Japanese umbrella a setting to +her pretty face. + +"Why did you put on that pretty frock?" asked Lucius. + +"Because it is so hot; just like summer." + +"I know why you put it on." + +"Of course you do when I've just told you." + +"You put it on because you wanted me to think how pretty you looked in +it." + +"I didn't do anything of the sort. Don't be so silly." + +"You do look awfully pretty in it, you know." + +"Now, Lucius, if you begin saying that sort of thing I shall get out." + +"All right. The river is shallow here. It won't come much above your +shoulders." + +"Be quiet, and go on." + +"I am going on. I say, Betty!" + +"Well?" + +"Do you remember those lectures last October term?" + +"Yes, pretty well; I've got the notes of them at home if you want them." + +"Bother the notes! Do you remember how regular I was?" + +"How should I? I didn't know you then." + +"Oh, you wicked story! You knew who I was perfectly well, you little +witch, and you let me go on like that for two whole terms without +making a sign. It was cruel of you." + +"Well, did you expect me to stop you in the street and say I was your +cousin, when you had never taken the trouble to call on me?" + +"You know I thought you were at Girton. Father said you were, and +there _is_ someone called German there." + +"Yes, and you went to Girton such a lot, didn't you?" + +"I could swear now when I think what an idiot I was." + +"Then don't do it, please, although I quite agree with you. And, of +course, you were much too grand to come and see us at Christmas." + +"Confound it! I say, Betty, was it you who got me asked there?" + +"I certainly shouldn't think of doing so again. And it was mother who +asked you last vacation. I had nothing to do with it." + +"Then it _was_ you. Betty, you are a dar----" + +"Now, then, be quiet, please." + +"You and John are coming to us in town for a week, directly after term." + +"Poor old John. I wonder whatever he would say if he saw me now!" + +They had now passed Clare again, and were gliding slowly along between +the pleasant meadow and the great lawn towards King's bridge. + +"I say, Betty," said Lucius, "I don't want to frighten you, but who is +that on the bridge?" + +"I should think the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Newnham waiting +for us," answered Betty without turning round. + +"No, but really, I do believe it is John." + +Betty turned round and saw a man in a straw hat with a green and black +ribbon leaning over the bridge. + +"Yes, it is," she said, blushing scarlet, but speaking quite +unconcernedly, "he ought to be working. I shall blow him up for it." + +"Shall we turn round? He hasn't spotted us yet." + +"Turn round? Whatever for? You don't suppose I'm frightened of John, +do you?" + +"I don't know. You look rather as if you were." + +"Of course I'm not. But I don't know what he will think, and I should +look so idiotic if I began to explain." + +"What about that backwater?" + +"Is it very pretty?" + +"Yes, very. Hold your umbrella towards the bridge as we go round the +corner and he won't see you. I'll pull my hat over my face." + +So the canoe glided under the little wooden bridge and into the still, +shaded water beyond. + +The other girl, who was still walking about along the river bank, and +had seen it disappear, waited for an hour, and then went away furious, +half intending to report Miss Betty Jermyn to the authorities of her +college. Directly she had gone, the canoe came sliding out into the +river again. + +Betty was speaking. + +"I shouldn't much mind if John did see us now, should you, Lucius?" + +"Not a bit, darling," answered the happy Lucius. "But it wasn't John +at all. I looked when you were holding the umbrella in front of your +face." + + +Our narrative has dwelt so long on a series of painful and +discreditable events, that it is hoped that the account of how Lucius +and Betty, boy and girl as they were, made up their minds to spend +their lives together, may have dissipated the gloom which the +sympathetic reader will have experienced in following the chequered +career of Mr. Binney. We must now go back a little and fill up the gap +which we have left between the end of February and the end of April. + +And first let us say that the very time Lucius and Betty were cooing +like a pair of young doves in the seclusion of that backwater of the +Cam, which now holds for them more tender memories than any other spot +in the world, Mr. Binney was still in evidence as an undergraduate +member of the University of Cambridge. Lucius's plea had been +successful. A week after Mr. Binney's return to Russell Square he had +received a letter from Mr. Rimington, to inform him that he might come +up again at the beginning of the following term, but that the slightest +breach of discipline on his part in the future would mean a sentence of +instant dismissal from which there would be no appeal. + +But alas! this letter, welcome as its contents were, did not suffice to +raise Mr. Binney from the despondency into which he had fallen. After +the receipt of Mrs. Higginbotham's mute but eloquent dismissal he had +passed a week of such black despair that he could never look back upon +it in after life without shuddering. He had beaten his wings against +the doors of Mrs. Higginbotham's dwelling, but in vain. There was no +admittance for him. He had importuned her by post. His letters +remained unanswered. He scarcely knew how to bear the hard fate that +he had brought upon himself. He was all alone in the house, for Lucius +had gone straight from Cambridge to Norfolk, and was now engaged in the +Reverend Mr. Jermyn's pleasant rectory house and garden in laying the +train which eventually culminated in the scene between him and Betty +recounted at the beginning of this chapter. He would have gone down to +his place of business, but he was ashamed to face his manager and his +clerks. He thought that every one would know he had been sent down +from Cambridge. + +As a matter of fact, this particular event of his University career +never did become known to any but a very few. Even Mrs. Toller did not +know it, although Mr. Binney was convinced that she must have done, for +she cut him pointedly in Gower Street one afternoon as he crept +miserably along taking a little air and exercise, and audibly +instructed her daughter to do the same, as Mr. Binney raised his hat. + +After that he was not surprised to receive a letter from his fellow +deacons of Dr. Toller's chapel requesting him to resign his office, +which he did that day with an added pang of shame, and resolved that, +as he had now made the Baptist community too hot to hold him, he would +become a Wesleyan Methodist, and work his way up to a position of +authority in that body. He also made up his mind to let the house in +Russell Square, which was far too large for himself and Lucius, and +take a flat in Earl's Court, since Mrs. Higginbotham seemed to be made +of adamant, and there seemed very little chance now of her ever gracing +his establishment. With all these wrenches in his life, actual and +imminent, it may be imagined that Mr. Binney was not a happy man at +this time. + +When Mr. Rimington's letter came, he decided to make one more appeal to +Mrs. Higginbotham. He told her that he was going back to Cambridge, +and intended to lead a very different life in the future from that of +the past. Might he nourish a hope that if he did something to make up +for past disgrace, Mrs. Higginbotham would forgive him and smile on him +once more? + +To his intense relief and tearful joy Mrs. Higginbotham replied to his +letter. It appeared that he was not to be debarred from all hope. But +he was not to be allowed to see Mrs. Higginbotham again until he had +done something definite at Cambridge to atone for his past misconduct. + +"I do not mean success in your play-hours, Peter," wrote Mrs. +Higginbotham. "That you have already attained, and it has been the +means of leading you astray. Such success as that will never restore +my lost confidence in you. You must come to be well spoken of by +masters and pupils alike. You must rise to the top of your classes, +and acquit yourself well in your examinations. When you have done that +you may come and see me again. Until then the memory of the dreadful +trouble you have brought upon yourself and upon me, who trusted you, +must abide with me. I do not wish to load you with reproaches. Your +own conscience must be a very heavy burden for you to bear. But I +could not bear to see you with the account that one who shall be +nameless gave me of your conduct and appearances still fresh in my +memory." + +Mr. Binney stifled his renewed feelings of remorse and wrote to ask if +the passing of his Little-go in the following June might be considered +a passport to Mrs. Higginbotham's society? Mrs. Higginbotham replied, +Yes. If he passed that examination well and behaved immaculately in +the meantime he might consider himself on the old footing with her. So +Mr. Binney took heart, re-engaged the useful Minshull and retired to +Cornwall for the Easter vacation, where he ploughed away at his studies +so energetically that Minshull held out hopes of his attaining a second +class in one part at least of the examination. + +When Lucius paddled his canoe out of the backwater with Betty sitting +opposite to him in a flutter of dimples and happiness, there was +literally no cloud on his horizon. He had been up at Cambridge now for +three weeks and his father had never once given him occasion to wish +himself away. Mr. Binney behaved himself irreproachably. In fact, if +he had kept himself in the background as he was doing now from the time +he had entered the University, Lucius would have had no reason to be +ashamed of him at all. Even as it was, the contrast of what Mr. Binney +was now and what he had been when he first came up was so great that +the relief felt by Lucius almost made up for the distress he had +previously undergone. Mr. Binney as a subject for discussion had +somewhat lost interest by this time, and Lucius lived much in the same +way as he would have done if his father had never come to Cambridge. +Mr. Binney, whose nature was elastic, had recovered a little of his +self-importance now that he had nothing to fear from outraged +officialdom, and was rather inclined to patronise his son, and +generally to assume the high parental air with which he had treated him +before his own arrival in Cambridge. + +But Lucius, whose appeal had saved his father from expulsion, took it +all in excellent part, and was only too thankful that things were not +worse. He could have borne a great deal more and thought nothing of it +now that Betty had at last allowed him to put to her the all-important +question, and had given him the answer he wanted. He whistled gaily as +he walked up to his rooms from the river and thought himself the +luckiest fellow in the world. + +At the entrance to Whewell's Court he met Dizzy. + +"I've done it, old man," he said with a beaming face. "You're the +first person I've told about it." + +"Then I'm sure I'm extremely flattered," answered Dizzy, "although I +haven't the slightest notion what you're talking about." + +"I'm going to be married, Dizzy," said Lucius. "Will you be my best +man?" + +"Well, I'm going to play racquets at two," said Dizzy. "If you could +put it off till to-morrow perhaps I could----" + +"No, but really, Ben, I asked Betty this morning, and it's all right." + +"My dear old man," said Dizzy, grasping him warmly by the hand, while a +bright smile lit up his ingenuous features, "I couldn't have been +better pleased if I'd done it myself!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THIRD TRINITY MAKES A BUMP + +There never was such a little man as Mr. Binney for getting knocked +down flat and picking himself up again as cocky as ever. Lucius's +announcement of his engagement to his cousin Betty brought him to his +feet as pompous as if he had never been fined by a Proctor or rebuked +by a Dean. + +"I never heard of such a thing," he said indignantly. "Getting engaged +to be married at your age! Why, it's ridiculous. I won't have it. +That's flat." + +"What won't you have, father?" asked Lucius. "You can't stop my being +engaged to her, you know. That's over and done with." + +"It is not over and done with, sir," said Mr. Binney. "The engagement, +if there is one, must be broken off." + +"Why?" asked Lucius. + +"Because I say so," said his father. + +"You ought to give me a reason," said Lucius. "I'm not a child. I +love her and she loves me. Why shouldn't we be married? Of course I +don't mean now, but in two years' time or so, when you make me a +partner in the business." + +"You'll never be a partner in the business," said Mr. Binney, "if you +persist in this folly. You're a boy and she's a girl, and I won't have +it. It's ridiculous." + +"Of course she's a girl. I shouldn't want to marry her if she were an +old woman," said Lucius. "If you can't give me any better reason than +that, father, I don't think you're treating me fairly." + +Mr. Binney laid down the law for half-an-hour or so longer. He did not +produce a better reason for refusing his sanction to the engagement, +not having a better one to produce, unless he had told Lucius that he +was objecting simply for the pleasure of asserting his authority, which +was about the long and short of it. Lucius left him at last, somewhat +dispirited, and sought the society of Dizzy, his friend. + +"Governor won't hear of it," he said, laconically, as he threw himself +into an easy chair. + +"Why not?" asked Dizzy. + +"Wants to show his independence, I fancy," said Lucius. "He talked a +powerful lot of rot. Told me he'd turn me out of the house if I didn't +break it off." + +"Oh, he'll come round," said Dizzy encouragingly. "I know his little +ways. You stick to it. You'll find yourself settled in a +semi-detached villa at Brixton in a twelve-month, bringing home a +basket of fish for dinner, and making a row about the water-rate. +It'll turn out right in the end. You see if it don't." + +"I don't see much chance of it," said Lucius despondently. "The +governor swears he won't allow me enough to marry on for five years at +least. I've a good mind to take to gambling and try and pick up a bit +that way." + +"Rub your eyes, old man," said Dizzy. "This is Cambridge. It isn't a +novel by Alan St. Aubyn, although you _are_ in love with a Newnham +girl, and the first fellow I've ever known up here who's gone anywhere +near it. Not that they're not regular toppers, some of them," he added +hastily, anxious to clear himself from any suspicion of being wanting +in chivalry. "But that sort of thing don't happen, as they say in the +play. And that's all about it." + +"Well, it's happened with me," said Lucius. "And I'm pretty well down +in the mouth about it." + +"Look here," said Dizzy. "Shall I go and tackle your old governor? I +daresay he'd listen to me." + +Lucius laughed. "I won't stop you," he said, "but it won't be any +good." + +"We'll see," said Dizzy. "I'll go at once." + +When Lucius left his father, Mr. Binney began to turn over in his mind +the news he had received. He was not really displeased at it now he +came to think it over. Betty Jermyn was a very charming girl, and +there was no objection to her on the score of blood relationship, for +her mother had only been a second cousin of his wife's. They were both +very young, it is true, certainly too young to marry yet; but then they +did not want to marry yet. As far as money was concerned, Mr. Binney +fully intended to take Lucius into partnership with him in two or three +years' time. And even if the girl should prove to be penniless, as was +probable, Lucius would have quite enough to marry on directly he gave +him a share in the business. At this point in his ruminations Dizzy +entered the room. + +"Ah, Mr. Binney!" he said. "I thought I'd just look you up as I was +passing. How's the work getting on?" + +"Very well, thank you, Stubbs," replied Mr. Binney, with a pre-occupied +air. "Have you heard anything about this nonsense between Lucius and +his cousin?" + +"What, Miss Jermyn?" asked Dizzy. "Yes. I did hear they were thinking +of getting married or something of that sort. I didn't take much +notice of it." + +"Then you don't think Lucius is in earnest about it?" + +"Oh, I wouldn't say that. I should say he was in devilish deep +earnest." + +"Now, look here, Stubbs," said Mr. Binney. "Don't you think it's a +very ridiculous thing a boy not much over twenty getting engaged to be +married?" + +"Well, if you ask me for a plain answer, I can't say I do. I believe +in early marriages myself. It don't come so hard on the children. Now +look at my case. My old governor didn't marry till he was past fifty. +What's the consequence? When I go down from this place and want to go +about a bit and amuse myself, I shall have to sit by his bedside and +hold his hand. I'm fond of my old governor, but it isn't good enough." + +"That is a point, certainly," said Mr. Binney, thoughtfully. + +"Yes, and look at the other side of the question," continued Dizzy. +"You married young yourself, I take it, and here you are at the prime +of life with a son old enough to be a companion to you. Old enough! +Why, bless me, you're the younger of the two, and that's a fact." + +Mr. Binney was very much impressed by this argument. "There is a good +deal in what you say, Stubbs," he remarked. "I don't want to be hard +on the boy, of course, and I've no objection to the girl personally. +She seems a very nice girl, what little I've seen of her." + +"Oh, _she's_ all right. She's a topper," said Dizzy. + +"Of course I've got to keep up my authority, you know," pursued Mr. +Binney. "It won't do to slack the rein yet awhile." + +"By George, no," said Dizzy. "I should be a whale on parental +authority myself if I were in your place. Still, I don't think you'll +find Lucius disposed to question your decision. He told me himself he +had the utmost faith in your judgment and should follow your advice +whatever it might cost him." + +"Did he really tell you that?" inquired Mr. Binney, somewhat surprised. + +"Well, he didn't put it quite in that way," admitted Dizzy. "But +that's about what it came to." + +"Then if he feels like that about it," said Mr. Binney, "I shall put no +further obstacles in his path. He's a good boy, Lucius, and I'm +pleased with him." + +"He's got a good father," said Dizzy. "That's about the size of it," +and he took himself off to inform Lucius that he had managed everything +for him in a perfectly satisfactory manner. + +Mr. Binney had asserted his authority and was content. Subject to the +approval of Betty's parents, she and Lucius were allowed to consider +themselves engaged, with the prospect of marriage when Lucius should +reach the age of twenty-three. Mr. and Mrs. Jermyn made no objections. +Lucius had made himself very popular in the Norfolk rectory, and he was +a good match for their daughter from a worldly point of view. He went +about Cambridge for the rest of that term in the seventh heaven of +happiness. + +A few days after Lucius's future had been satisfactorily settled for +him, Mr. Binney had occasion to call on his Tutor. He now no longer +looked upon this as an ordeal. The sternest official critic could have +found no flaw in his behaviour during that part of the term that was +past, and he had no intention of giving any occasion for complaint +during the remainder of his residence in Cambridge. He could hold up +his head before anybody, and entered the Tutor's presence with an air +of conscious worth. + +Mr. Rimington received him pleasantly and attended to the business upon +which Mr. Binney had come. "I hope you are feeling happy amongst us +now that things are going more smoothly, Mr. Binney," he said as he +blotted the paper in front of him. + +"Thank you," said Mr. Binney, "University life is full of interest to +those who know how to value it." + +Mr. Rimington looked at him and smiled. "You have found out how to +value it now, have you?" he asked. + +"Certainly," said Mr. Binney. "I hope, sir, that you do not intend to +allude to past mistakes. I should resent such remarks on your part." + +"Oh, not at all," said Mr. Rimington hastily, "we have had no cause to +complain of you this term, Mr. Binney, and I have no wish to remind you +of what is over and done with. I hope you are getting on well with +your work." + +"I expect to take a first in both parts of the examination," said Mr. +Binney, rising. "Good-morning, sir." + +As the summer term passed quickly away with its feverish work and its +incessant pleasures, for it is the term when examinations closely +jostle its crowded gaieties, Mr. Binney found himself nearing two +important events. In one week about the beginning of June he was to go +in for both parts of his Little-go, and at the end of it to steer the +First Trinity first boat in the May races. With regard to his +examination, he felt confident of acquitting himself well. That he was +over-confident was shown by his boast to Mr. Rimington, for it is not +out of material such as himself that first classes are made, even in +the most elementary examination that Cambridge affords. But he had +worked so hard that he was certain of passing, and he looked forward +with trembling hope to a renewal of his intercourse with Mrs. +Higginbotham as a reward of his success. In being chosen to steer the +representative oarsmen of First Trinity he had been extremely +fortunate. When he had so disgraced himself in the previous term after +the success of his boat in the Lent races, Mirrilees had sworn that he +should never again steer a boat with which he had anything to do. But +one of the coxswains tried for the first boat had fallen ill, others +had proved unsatisfactory, and by the middle of term, by which time Mr. +Binney had already proved that his manner of life would be innocuous +for the future, Mirrilees had relented, and he was installed in the +proud position that he so coveted. Trinity Hall was the head boat on +the river, First Trinity was second, and Third Trinity was behind them. +All three were considered equally good, and no one could safely +prophesy what the result of the races would be so far as they were +concerned. The Hall men laughed at the idea of losing their place; the +First Trinity men expected to bump them, and said so; while Third +Trinity kept quiet, but expected to find themselves in the second place +if not head of the river by the time the races were over. + +Lucius was rowing bow in the Third Trinity boat, and his quiet +confidence that Third were a better crew than First exasperated Mr. +Binney, who wouldn't hear of it. + +"Don't talk such nonsense," he said in an annoyed tone, when Lucius +ventured to advance the opinion that Third would finish head of the +river and First second. "We shall row away from you, and catch the +Hall at Ditton on the first night." + +"We shall see," said Lucius calmly. + +"No, we shall not see, sir," said Mr. Binney angrily. "I mean we +_shall_ see. And we shall see that I am right." He had quite +recovered his bombastic tone, only he had learnt by bitter experience +to quell it, except when addressing his son, who was too good-tempered +to resent it. + +Betty, of course, showed the utmost interest in the prospects of the +Third Trinity crew. She was delighted when she heard that they were to +row behind the boat which was to be steered by Mr. Binney, for she +still maintained a deep-rooted prejudice against her future +father-in-law, in spite of the welcome he had given her as Lucius's +intended bride. "If they bump them, and I see it," she said to one of +her friends, the girl from whom she had won the box of chocolate +creams, "I think I shall scream with joy. Oh, won't cousin Peter's +face be worth seeing when he has to hold up his hand and acknowledge he +has been beaten. I'd give worlds to see it." + +"You show a very vindictive spirit," said her friend. + +Mr. Binney's time was fully occupied between putting the finishing +touches to his reading, and his work on the river. He had almost +entirely dropped out of the social side of University life. Although +his wings had been clipped, and he would now have been a quite harmless +companion, the men with whom he might have associated, had he behaved +differently when he first came up, still looked rather shyly on him; +and he had entirely dropped the society of men like Howden, for he had +learnt such a lesson that he would have been almost frightened of +results if one of them had even come into his rooms. Indeed, the poor +little man led a very dull life, and when he had time to think about +it, on Sundays perhaps, or for half-an-hour after his work was done, +and before he went to bed, he often asked himself what was the use of +his staying up at Cambridge at all, since so much of what he had hoped +to gain from the place seemed to have been an illusive dream. He had +lost his Martha, at any rate for the present, and in his moments of +insight he could not disguise from himself the fact that he was +unpopular, although he endeavoured to carry off the conviction with an +added bumptiousness of manner which did not endear him to those with +whom he came in contact. He would probably have made up his mind to +leave Cambridge after this term, when he would have passed one +examination and attained to a considerable measure of success on the +river, but one consideration deterred him. He hoped to be chosen to +steer the University boat in the following spring, and on the chance of +having that ambition realised he would have stayed on at Cambridge if +everyone in the place had cut him. + +June came and brought the roses, and with them the anxieties of +Triposes and all the multitude of lesser examinations. Mr. Binney went +in for the Little-go. All day long he sat at a narrow desk in the Corn +Exchange, that classical building which the University of Cambridge +periodically hires for the purpose of putting her sons through their +facings, and wrote assiduously, only leaving off now and again to gaze +up at the roof with an expression of agonised effort, or to rest his +brain for a minute by idly reading the names on the corn dealers' +lockers which lined the walls. On these occasions he would find his +thoughts wandering off to business affairs, for the corn dealers' names +meant considerably more to Mr. Binney than to the other few hundred +undergraduates who attained a short-lived familiarity with them during +those few days of effort. But when he found his thoughts slipping he +would bring them back with a frown and wrestle eagerly with his +translations and his problems, for the card nailed on to the desk +before him reminded him that he was "Binney of Trinity," and that Peter +Binney of the Whitechapel Road must be ignored at least for the next +few days. + +The examination lasted from the beginning of the week until Friday, and +the May races began on that day. The hotels and lodgings throughout +the town gradually filled up with ladies, old and young, plain and +pretty, amiable and perhaps ill-tempered, although the smiling faces +one met in all the streets might have given the impression that all the +bad-tempered ladies had been left at home. But Mr. Binney took very +little notice of the change. By day he slaved in the Corn Exchange. +After his afternoon's work was over he went out with his crew on the +river. In the evening he looked up his subjects for the following day +and went to bed early with his mind full of books and boats. Even Mrs. +Higginbotham retired into the background of his mind, and other things +were forgotten entirely. By the time the examination was over Mr. +Binney was rather despondent. He had done fairly well, but not so well +as he had expected. But he remembered a saying of his coach: "If you +think you have done _rather_ badly you may have done well. If you +think you have done _very_ badly, you probably have." He knew he had +not done very badly, so he took heart, dismissed the Little-go from his +mind entirely, and threw himself heart and soul into anticipations of +success in the races. We have already described the gay scene on the +river bank at Ditton Corner in the May races, and one bumping race is +very much like another; so the experiences of Mr. Binney, when he had +steered in the previous Lent races, were not unlike those he underwent +in the Mays. Of course he was now in a much more important position, +and his appearance in the coxswain's seat of the First Trinity boat, as +the First Division rowed down to the starting-point, never failed to +cause a flutter of amusement and inquiry to go through the waiting +crowd at Ditton Corner, which brought a blush to the cheek of Betty +Jermyn, who was generally to be found in a boat or on the bank, in a +position from which she could see everything that was going on. + +She did not waste much time, however, on the contemplation of Mr. +Binney, in his dark blue coat and speckled straw hat, for in the bows +of the boat just in front of him, as they rowed down in reversed order, +was a slim muscular figure whose eyes eagerly sought the crowded ranks +of the onlookers as the crews rested for a minute on their oars before +they went swinging round the bend to their stations. Betty was very +proud of her lover then, for even her inexperienced eyes could see that +the grace and ease with which he rowed were something to be admired, +and poor little Mr. Binney sank still lower in her esteem as he gave +the words of command "Get ready all! Forward all! Are you ready? +Paddle!" which was the signal for his boat to move on. + +On the first night of the races there was no change in the position of +the three head boats. Third Trinity drew up to First at Ditton Corner, +but then fell away and finished at about their distance. First Trinity +gained on the Hall, but never got within a length of them. Mr. Binney +steered with great judgment, and was told that he could not have done +better, but he was disappointed at not catching the head boat and a +little alarmed at Third Trinity having come so close to them during the +early part of the race. + +"They always bustle up like that at first," said Mirrilees, to whom he +confided his tremors. "We shall keep away from them all right, and I +hope we shall catch the Hall to-morrow." + +Mr. Binney was comforted, but on the next night Third not only got to +within a length of them at Grassy Corner but hustled them right up the +Long Reach and very nearly caught them at the railway bridge. This +pursuit seemed, however, to have increased their own pace, for it drove +them right on to Trinity Hall, whom they very nearly succeeded in +bumping. All three boats passed the winning post overlapping, but if +Mr. Binney had made a shot at the head boat he would almost certainly +have missed it, and the boat behind would almost as certainly have run +into them. + +He was warmly congratulated on his presence of mind by the Captain, but +he went home to his rooms by no means at ease, for he now saw plainly +that Third Trinity were just as likely to bump First as First Trinity +were to catch Trinity Hall. He was as keenly anxious as any member of +his crew to go head of the river, and he felt that not only to fail in +that object but to be taken down a place instead would be more than he +could bear. + +It was characteristic of Mr. Binney, as may already have been gathered, +to throw himself heart and soul into what he happened to be doing for +the moment. He had entirely dismissed all thoughts of his late +examination from his mind, and even Mrs. Higginbotham scarcely entered +his thoughts during the whole of the next day, which was a Sunday, as +he walked or sat and went over, in his mind all the events of the last +two races and the probabilities of those that were to come. He was +alone all day, for he now had very few friends, and Sunday was for +Lucius a happy day spent mostly in Betty's charming society. So Mr. +Binney brooded, and by-and-bye dark thoughts began to enter his mind. + +During the progress of Saturday's race, when First Trinity had been +chased all the way up the Long Reach by Third, Mr. Binney had cast one +fleeting glance behind him, and had seen the little indiarubber ball on +the nose of the Third Trinity boat within a few inches of his own +rudder, while the back of his son was swinging regularly and steadily +behind it. An unreasoning anger and jealousy had taken hold of his +mind. It was as much as he could do to prevent himself from shouting +out to Lucius to ask him where he was coming to. It seemed to him an +intolerable thing that he should be prevented from gaining something +that he wanted by the action of his own son, and the more he thought of +it the more intolerable it seemed. He had only to say a word to +Lucius, and Third Trinity would keep away from him, for it was quite +certain that if one man in the boat "sugared" they would have no chance +of making a bump. + +Should he say that word? That was the black thought that held Mr. +Binney in its grip during the whole of that pleasant June Sunday, when +Cambridge was full of life and gaiety, and he only wandered about +lonely and distraught. It would not be sportsman-like behaviour +certainly, but Mr. Binney had not been brought up to be a sportsman, +and the iniquity of the proceeding did not strike him very forcibly. +It also never entered his head that Lucius would disobey his behests if +he brought pressure to bear on him. Lucius was entirely dependent on +his father, and could be threatened with being immediately taken away +from Cambridge if he refused to do what he was told. Mr. Binney had +worried himself into such a fever of desire that he could not bring +himself to look upon his possible defeat with the slightest equanimity. +He would have preferred that his boat should go head of the river on +the merits of its crew, but rather than not go head at all, he was +prepared to take any steps that would bring about what he desired. + +But the morning light happily brought better counsels. He dismissed +his half-formed intention of tampering with a member of the Third +Trinity crew, and went down to the river with renewed hopes. + +The First Trinity men rowed like heroes and got up to the head boat at +Ditton Corner. Third were pressing them hard, but lost a little by bad +steering. + +The shouts from the bank were deafening. Mr. Binney lost his head and +made shot after shot. If he had waited, his crew would have made their +bump. But in the meantime they lost ground, and Third was creeping up +again. + +Mr. Binney turned round in his seat and saw a long sharp point with a +little ball at the end of it dancing gaily past his rudder. Behind it +was the back of his son, swinging regularly. + +"Keep off!" roared Mr. Binney, and made another dab at the Head boat. +Then he turned round again. The little ball was within reach of him, +and behind it was Lucius rowing more vigorously than ever. Mr. Binney +was aware of the ball and the back, and nothing else in all the world. + +He lost his head completely and turned round in his seat, half rising, +pulling his right rudder line, and so crammed his boat right on to the +high bank under the tow-path. + +"Catch a crab, or you go down to-morrow," he shrieked to Lucius. + +The next moment, he could never recall how, he found himself +floundering in the river, in an inextricable confusion of boats, oars, +and shouting, struggling humanity. He could not swim. As he rose to +the surface the blade of an oar hit him on the head. He went down +again, and gave himself over, but when he came up the second time he +felt himself grasped by the collar of his blazer. "Don't kick!" gasped +the voice of his son. "I'll get you out." + +When he was hauled on to the tow-path, panting and dripping, he turned +round on Lucius in a fury: "What do you mean by it? It was your +fault," he shrieked. "You'll go down! you'll go down!" + +Mirrilees, dripping from head to foot, with a slimy weed clinging round +his leg, shouldered his way through the crowd. + +"Hold your tongue, you little beast, or I'll pitch you into the river +again," he said. + +Other things happened to Mr. Binney that evening, of which he does not +now speak--some of them on his way to the First Trinity boat-house, +some of them when he got there, others as he made his way for the last +time to his rooms in Jesus Lane, and others again before he found +himself in the train on his way to London, having shaken the dust of +Cambridge from his feet for ever. + +The next night Third Trinity bumped Trinity Hall and went head of the +river. First Trinity were badly steered by the coxswain who had been +put into Mr. Binney's place, and succumbed to Jesus. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MR. BINNEY DRINKS THE HEALTH OF A "BLUE" + +Nine months had passed and the nipping March winds were raising the +dust and numbing noses and finger-tips in London, while March sunshine +was bringing out daffodils and primroses in the country. It was very +cold on the river Thames between Putney and Mortlake, but the sun was +shining brightly, and a little party on the deck of a steamer, which +was making its way with other similar craft to a station near Barnes +Bridge, seemed to be quite unaffected in spirits by the keen east wind, +for it was the morning of the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. The +party on the steamer were all interested in the prospects of one +University, but the two crews were so equal that none of the sporting +critics had ventured to prophesy the winner in clear and unmistakable +terms, and everybody looked forward to seeing one of the best races +that had been rowed for years. + +Surely that short but erect figure, standing in the bows, with a First +Trinity scarf showing above the collar of its overcoat and the ruddy +glow of health in its cheeks, can belong to no one but Mr. Peter +Binney, late of Trinity College, Cambridge! And that ample comfortable +form on the seat beside him with a fur-lined cloak and a close-fitting +bonnet, well-secured against the wind, must be that of his true and +loyal wife, Martha Binney, relict of the late Matthew Higginbotham. +Here also are the Reverend Dr. Toller with his wife and daughter, for +Mr. Binney still lives in Russell Square, and is once more a valued and +important official in the doctor's congregation. Here also are Mr. and +Mrs. Jermyn with their son and daughter, the latter attended by the +loquacious Dizzy, while John Jermyn sticks close to the side of Nesta +Toller, rather to the dismay of Mrs. Jermyn, who, charitable woman as +she is, has not taken kindly to that young lady's mother, and is not at +all anxious that this acquaintanceship which has been made under Mr. +Binney's hospitable roof should develop into intimacy. There are other +people on the boat which has been chartered by Mr. Binney for the +entertainment of his friends, but we need not concern ourselves with +them. There is one very important person, however, of those with whom +our story has concerned itself, who is not to be found there. Surely +Lucius, and not Dizzy, entertaining as that gentleman's conversation +is, should be found by the side of Betty Jermyn! And by her side +Lucius certainly would be, if duty and honour did not call him +elsewhere. For Lucius has occupied the bow seat of the Cambridge boat +ever since they went into practice, and is even now, as Mr. Binney's +steamer makes its way up the crowded river, preparing to help launch +the frail shell which all those in whom we are interested confidently +hope will soon bear him to victory. + +Mr. and Mrs. Peter Binney are alone for a time in the bows of the +steamer. Let us join them, and listen to their conversation. + +"See what an interest the world takes in this historic contest," Mr. +Binney is saying, waving his hand round towards the river dotted with +craft all moving the same way, and the banks lined with a dense, +holiday-making mass. "It makes you proud of being able to call +yourself a 'Varsity man." + +"Yes, indeed," answers his wife. "And to think of Lucius actually +taking part in it! I feel as proud as anything of the dear boy." + +"So do I," says Mr. Binney heartily. "There was a time when I should +have been jealous of him. But that is all over and done with. I've +put such things behind me. Here am I, settled down comfortably with a +devoted and charming wife. I can take life gratefully now as it comes, +and be just as proud of my boy distinguishing himself as if I had done +it myself." + +"That's the way to look at it, Peter," says Mrs. Binney. "We made a +mistake in thinking it was necessary for you to go to Cambridge in +order to keep young. It's love that keeps the heart young, and so +we've found, haven't we?" + +"Indeed we have, Martha," says Mr. Binney. "Ah! Shall I ever forget +what you did for me in that dark time of illness and remorse? Shall I +ever forget reaching home that morning, racked with anguish at the +thought of the ingratitude I had displayed towards my noble-hearted +son, and the remembrance of the awful punishment I had received for my +rash folly? How I sat indoors brooding over the past, feeling wretched +and miserable, without hope or comfort. How the next day I was too ill +to get up, and by night time was mercifully beyond the reach of my +remorseful thoughts, because of the severe attack of pneumonia, which +the exposure and distress I had gone through had brought on. How I lay +for days, tossing and burning on a couch of misery, and woke at last to +find your cool hand stilling the throbbing of my burning brain, and +your angel voice falling in words of balm on my distressed and fevered +spirit. + +"Yes, dear," says his wife as Mr. Binney pauses for breath, "and then +you soon got better, didn't you?" + +"Shall I ever forget," pursues Mr. Binney more energetically than ever, +"how, when I came again to the realisation of all the many follies I +had committed, you soothed and consoled me, how you brought my boy to +me, and neither of you would listen to my broken cries of repentance, +but gave me calves' foot jelly and grapes instead, and insisted upon +carrying on a cheerful conversation? How you brought me the news of my +success in the Little-go, which was greater than I deserved, but less +than I expected; and finally, Martha, how you made me the happy man I +am to-day by promising to become mine when I had sufficiently +recovered, on the condition that I should leave Cambridge and settle +down once more to my business." + +"Yes, dear, and now we're all comfortable and happy," says Mrs. Binney. +"I made mistakes too, Peter, as well as you, but they're all over now. +And----" + +"Well, Mrs. Binney," interrupts a well-known voice, "this is something +like, eh? I don't know whether you know that if you've got any +microbes or things of that sort in your system a wind like this blows +'em all away." + +"I didn't know it, Mr. Stubbs," says Mrs. Binney, with a pleasant +smile. "But I have no doubt the wind is a very good thing if only it +wouldn't blow all one's hair about one's face so?" + +"Ah, dear lady!" says Dizzy, "you may consider yourself lucky you've +got any hair _to_ be blown about. Now look at the top of _my_ old +pepper-box. I haven't had to use a comb for a year, and I shall soon +be able to part my hair with a towel. You wouldn't like to be like +that, would you?" + +"No," says Mrs. Binney. "But you are very young to be going so bald, +Mr. Stubbs. What do you attribute it to?" + +It appears that Dizzy attributes his growing baldness to hard work and +care combined, but just as he is explaining this to the sympathetic +Mrs. Binney the steamer shuts off steam and is turned and backed with a +good deal of commotion into her berth just by Barnes Bridge. + +There is another hour to wait, but the time goes by somehow. The party +stamp about the deck and huddle themselves up in coats and cloaks to +keep themselves warm, and by-and-bye a muffled roar from a mile away +down the river, warns them that the boats are drawing near. The roar +deepens and increases, and by-and-bye, leaning over the rail of the +steamer, they can see the rhythmic flash of oars in the sunshine, and +nearer and nearer come the two boats, with the Umpire's launch fussing +along just behind them, and the four steamers which follow the race in +the background, the Cambridge steamer--_absit omen!_--some way behind +the rest. Now they are alongside, and a mighty cheer goes up from all +the throats in Mr. Binney's steamer as they pass, and Cambridge is seen +to be leading by half a length. Just here Oxford makes a spurt, and +creeps up level. Cambridge answers it, and on they go under Barnes +Bridge, fighting every inch of the way, as they have done ever since +the starting gun sent them off like greyhounds from the leash, four +miles down the river at Putney. + +Our party spends five minutes of breathless expectation, after boats +and following steamers have passed out of sight, and then another +cheer, louder than the first, goes up as the light blue flag slowly +unfurls itself from the flag-staff at the finish of the course, and the +dark blue is run up underneath it. Then mutually congratulating one +another with every expression of delight and fulfilled expectation, our +party steam away down the river, very well pleased with their +afternoon's amusement. + + +On the night of the boat race Lucius dined with the crews; but while he +was by no means a drag on the hilarity of the proceedings, and may be +said on the whole to have enjoyed himself, he often found himself +wishing that he was at home in Russell Square, where Betty was. He had +declined the invitation he had received to the "Blue Monday" dinner, as +Mr. Binney had announced his intention of exercising his hospitality on +that evening in honour of the distinction Lucius had gained in rowing +in the winning University crew. The company was the same as that which +had graced Mr. Binney's board in the Easter vacation a year before, +with the exception of Miss Tupper, who had not entered the house since +Mrs. Higginbotham had taken her place there, and with the addition of +Mrs. Jermyn, Betty, and John. The Reverend Julius Jermyn had returned +to his parish at Norfolk directly after the boat race on the previous +Saturday. The Tollers would not have been there had not Mrs. Toller +practically asked herself. She was sweetness itself in her intercourse +with Mrs. Binney, but although her claws were sheathed they were not +cut, and were likely to spring out at a moment's warning if she were +offended, and Mrs. Binney had wisely given in at once, and warmly +proffered the invitation which was being fished for. Mrs. Toller could +not come without her husband, and Nesta had been asked in order to fill +up. + +Mr. Binney took in Mrs. Jermyn. It was known that Mrs. Toller would +resent this, but she was placed on her host's left, having been paired +off with Dizzy, to whom she had taken a great fancy, and smiled sweetly +as she took her seat after the Doctor's extempore grace. Lucius was +allowed to take in Betty, and sat between her and her mother. Next to +Betty came Dr. Toller on Mrs. Binney's left. On the other side of the +table was John Jermyn, who had been made happy with Nesta Toller, with +Dizzy and Mrs. Toller next to them. The table was decorated with +Lucius's silver cups, standing on an artistically crinkled square of +light blue silk. The menus, adorned with appropriate aquatic emblems +and the arms of the two Universities, had been ordered expressly from +Messrs. Breedon & Co., and were quite in the orthodox Cambridge style. + +"Very pretty," said Mrs. Toller, examining hers when she had settled +herself. "One might almost imagine oneself transported to Cambridge, +Mr. Stubbs. Quite delightful, is it not?" + +"Yes," said Dizzy, "although to tell you the truth, I'm getting a bit +tired of Cambridge." + +"Oh! but I thought young men never got tired of University life," said +Mrs. Toller. "I have always heard that it was so very attractive. I'm +sure you found it so, didn't you, Mr. Binney?" + +But Mr. Binney was engaged with Mrs. Jermyn and affected not to have +heard the inquiry. + +"It's all very well for a bit," said Dizzy, "but when a fellow gets my +age he wants to settle down and do something." + +"Oh! come," said Mrs. Toller, "you're not so old as all that, Mr. +Stubbs." + +"Not in years perhaps," said Dizzy. "But I assure you that in other +things Methuselah was a babe compared with me. I sometimes sit and +look at fellows amusing themselves, and I say to myself: 'Well, you are +a set o' Jugginses. Call this life! Why, you ought all to be in the +nursery!' However, I've only got one more term and the whole thing +will be over." + +"And what are you going to do when you leave the University?" asked +Mrs. Toller. "Are you still thinking of entering the Church?" + +"Oh! bless me, no," said Dizzy. "That's off. My old father got a bit +frightened, when these Kensit Johnnies began bally-ragging all over the +place. He's a far-sighted old fellow. He saw that if I got shoved +into a comfortable living and then they went and disestablished it or +something, I should get left." + +"Have you ever turned your attention to the Nonconformist ministry?" +inquired Mrs. Toller. + +"No, I can't say I have," replied Dizzy. "Is there much in it?" + +"The incomes made by our leading men are superior to anything in the +Establishment," said Mrs. Toller. "Our people have been taught to +give." + +"_Have_ they?" said Dizzy, with interest. "Well now, that's worth +knowing. I'll put my old governor on to that. If you hear of a soft +thing going, I shall consider it very kind of you if you'll drop me a +line. One's got to keep one's eyes skinned to pick up a living +now-a-days. We're getting ready for the bar now, to tell you the +truth. My old father was dining with a railway fellow down our way, +and he told him that they spent I forget how many thousands a year on +litigation. My governor's a cute old bird, and he thought it wouldn't +be a bad thing if I could pick up a bit of it, so I've been eating +dinners at Lincoln's Inn for the last year or so, and previous poor +dinners they are too. I don't think I shall take to it much. In fact, +the governor's been dropping hints about diplomacy lately. It seems +he's found out from the papers that the people ain't over and above +pleased with the way things have been carried on by the ambassadors +we've got now, and he thinks there might be a chance there in a few +years' time. I don't much care what it is. I suppose I shall keep +going somehow." + +Lucius and Betty were talking quietly together on the other side of the +table. + +"Only two more years," Lucius was saying. "Won't it be ripping, Betty, +when we're settled down in a house of our own?" + +"I don't think we shall ever have a better time than we've had for the +last year at Cambridge," said Betty. "And think of another summer term +there together." + +Lucius's face lit up. "There's nothing like a summer term at Cambridge +when the girl you're in love with is there," he said. "We'll go on the +Backs in a canoe every fine afternoon. I say, Betty, do you remember +that backwater?" + +"Of course I do, you silly boy," said Betty. "I haven't forgiven you +yet for getting me to go up it on false pretences. I'll see that you +don't get me there again though." + +"I'll take particular good care that I do," said Lucius. "I like that +backwater better than any place in Cambridge. Betty, what shall you do +when I've gone down?" + +"I know I shall be very miserable," said Betty, her face falling. "But +don't let us talk about that. We shall have another summer term +together." + +Dr. Toller was making himself pleasant to his hostess. He was an +agreeable man when he succeeded in banishing from his mind "the +Problems that confront the Age," and brought himself down to the level +of those who are content to let the Age worry along in its own way +without making too much noise about it. Mrs. Binney, at the head of +her own table, was an attractive figure in a gown of rich black silk, +festooned with hangings of lace, and smiled engagingly at the Doctor's +conversation. + +"Yes, Doctor," she said, in answer to a remark from him, "I feel I am a +very fortunate woman. I have a comfortable house and the best of +husbands. Peter is consideration itself to all my little whims, and I +assure you I have a great many whims. There was a time when I feared +that this happiness would never come to me. You know all about it and +were very kind to me when I thought it my duty to cut myself off from +all these bright prospects. I am thankful that that trouble passed +away and I was not compelled to spend the rest of my life by myself. +There is the closest confidence between me and my husband. He is of a +sanguine disposition, and I think I may say that any weight of +character I may have attained to--and you know, Doctor, I am a weighty +woman in more ways than one--keeps the balance true. There is not a +happier couple in all Bloomsbury than Peter and myself, and you know +that in marrying him I have gained a son, which is a great joy to me, +for I never had a child of my own. Lucius treats me with the greatest +respect and affection, and I could not be fonder of him than if he were +my own. I am as proud as anyone of his success to-day. Cambridge has +not proved an unmixed source of pleasure to me, as you know, but I have +seldom performed a more agreeable duty than when I arranged this light +blue silk on the table this afternoon with my own hands. Anything that +I can do towards making the dear boy's life happy with the sweet girl +he is going to marry I _shall_ do, as if they were my own children, and +consider myself fortunate in being permitted to do." + +If Mrs. Binney could speak in such terms of gratitude of the new life +she had entered upon, what words could be too strong for her husband to +use in describing his content in having gained as his helpmate that +most estimable woman. She was the theme on which he was expatiating to +Mrs. Jermyn while the conversations already recorded were going on +around him. + +"Nobody knows," Mr. Binney was saying, "what that woman has been to me. +She has stuck by me in sickness and in health, when I was working at +the business to which I was brought up, and when I was trying to do +something that I oughtn't have tried to do. You know all about that, +Elizabeth, so I don't mind mentioning it to you, although it's all over +now. I can't say that I'm altogether sorry to have had the mental +training that University life affords. Nobody can deny that there's a +difference between a man who has been at the University and one who +hasn't. You've had a husband at Oxford and a son at Cambridge and you +know that as well as I do. But still on the whole I acknowledge that +Oxford and Cambridge are for the young fellows. When I saw Lucius +pulling away in such perfect style in that boat on Saturday afternoon I +can tell you it warmed my heart to see it. And Martha feels just the +same as I do about it. She told me so. Nobody knows, Elizabeth, what +a treasure I've found in that woman. And as for Lucius, well, he +didn't take to the idea kindly at first--I don't know that it was to be +expected that he should--but they're as fond of one another as they can +be now, and--and it makes me very happy to see it--very happy." + +The conversation became more general after this, and great were the +merriment and goodwill round Mr. Binney's table. + +When dinner was over and the servants had left the room, Mr. Binney +rose to his feet. There was an expectant silence and a rapping on the +table from all except Lucius, who knew what was coming and wished it +was well over. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. Binney, "I rise to perform a very +pleasant duty, a duty which I am proud of having occasion to perform, a +duty which I am sure all the friends I see gathered round me to-night +will join with me heartily in--in performing, a duty which--which I +will now perform. I rise, ladies and gentlemen, to propose the health +of my son Lucius, who rowed with such conspicuous success in the +Cambridge boat last Saturday." (Murmured but heartfelt applause, +rappings on the table, and "Well rowed, Lucy, well rowed," from Dizzy.) +"We have gathered round our table to-night," continued Mr. Binney, +"four members of the University of Cambridge." ("Five, sir, five," +from Dizzy.) Mr. Binney's puzzled eye searched quickly round the table +and lit upon Betty. "Five, of course," he said, "for have we not a +fair representative of the great college of Newnham in the person of +the dear girl whom I hope soon to welcome as a daughter?" (Renewed +applause.) "We have also a distinguished member of another University, +or rather of two Universities, for my friend Dr. Toller is a Bachelor +of Arts of the University of London and a Doctor of Divinity--_honoris +causa_--of the University of Joppa, Pa., across the water. And +speaking for the ladies, I am sure there is not one present here +to-night whose sympathies do not go out to the great University to +which I have the honour to belong." (Rappings and subdued acquiescent +murmurs from the ladies with the exception of Mrs. Toller, who thought +Oxford rather more aristocratic.) "I needn't say," pursued Mr. Binney, +"that to become a Blue is to gain the proudest position which Cambridge +can afford, and to become a rowing Blue is perhaps the highest +distinction of all. I have always had occasion to be proud of my son +throughout his school and University career, and I am prouder than ever +of him to-night." (Applause.) "These trophies, ladies and gentlemen, +and this decoration of light blue, are signs of his having +distinguished himself in the highest possible degree in one path of +life--the path which only those who have youth, strength, and health on +their side can hope to tread. In proposing the health of my son +Lucius, I am sure you will join with me in wishing him equal success in +other paths of life in the future, a success which, with the charming +girl who has promised to share it with him, I for one feel confident of +his attaining. Ladies and gentlemen--My son Lucius." + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Binney, by Archibald Marshall + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER BINNEY *** + +***** This file should be named 38694.txt or 38694.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/6/9/38694/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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