while Michael hurried down to
intercept the scout, hoping his dismay at Templeton-Collins' impatience
would not be too great to allow him to pay a moment's attention to
himself.

However, on the ground floor the silence was still unbroken, and
hopelessly Michael read over the right-hand door _Amherst_, over the
left-hand door _Lonsdale_. What critical moment had arrived in the
unpacking of Lonsdale's wine to make the scout so heedless of
Templeton-Collins' call? Again it resounded from above, and Michael
looking up involuntarily, caught the downward glance of
Templeton-Collins himself.

"I say, is Porcher down there?" the latter asked fretfully.

"I think he's unpacking Lonsdale's wine."

"Who's Lonsdale?" demanded Templeton-Collins. "You might sing out and
tell him I want him."

With this request Templeton-Collins vanished, leaving Michael in a
quandary. There was only one hope of relieving the intolerable
situation, he thought, which was to shout "Porcher" from where he was
standing. This he did at the very moment the scout emerged from
Lonsdale's rooms.

"Coming, sir," said Porcher in an aggrieved voice.

"I think Mr. Templeton-Collins is calling you," Michael explained,
rather lamely he felt, since it must have been obvious to the scout that
Michael himself had been calling him.

"And I say," he added hurriedly, "you might bring me up a hammer or
something to open my boxes, when you've done."

Leaving Porcher to appease the outraged Templeton-Collins, Michael
retreated to the security of his own rooms, where in a few minutes the
scout appeared to raise the question of lunch.

"Will you take commons, sir?"

Michael looked perplexed.

"Commons is bread and cheese. Most of my gentlemen takes commons. If you
want anything extra, you go to the kitchen and write your name down for
what you want."

This sounded too difficult, and Michael gratefully chose commons.

"Ale, sir?"

Michael nodded. If the scout had suggested champagne, he would have
assented immediately.

Porcher set to work and undid the cases; he also explained where the
china was kept and the wood and the coal. He expounded the theory of
roll-calls and chapels, and was indeed so generous with information on
every point of college existence that Michael would have been glad to
retain his services for the afternoon.

"And the other men on this staircase?" Michael asked, "are any of them
freshers?"

"Mr. Mackintosh, Mr. Amherst, and the