alternative versions. But if I read them to you
now, you'd think I was an affected ass," he drawled.

Michael protested he would like to hear them very much.

"They're all equally bad," the poet proclaimed gloomily. "What made you
come to this inn? I didn't know that anybody else except me had ever
been here. You're at the Varsity, I suppose?"

Michael with a nod announced his college.

"I'm at Balliol. At Balliol you find the youngest dons and the oldest
undergraduates in Oxford."

"I think just the reverse is true of St. Mary's," Michael suggested.

"Well, certainly the youngest thing I ever met is a St. Mary's man. I
refer to the ebullient Avery whom I expect you know."

"Oh, rather. In fact, he's rather a friend of mine. He's keen on
starting a paper just at present."

"I know. I know," said the poet. "He's asked me to be one of the
forty-nine sub-editors. Are you another?"

"I was invited to be," Michael admitted. "But instead I'm going to
subscribe some of the capital required. My name's Fane."

"Mine's Hazlewood. It's rather jolly to meet a person in this inn.
Usually I only meet fishermen more flagrantly mendacious than anywhere
else. But they've got bored with me because I always unhesitatingly go
two pounds better than the biggest juggler of avoirdupois present. Have
you ever thought of the romance in Troy measure? I can imagine Paris
weighing the charms of Helen--no--on second thoughts I'm being forced.
Don't encourage me to talk for effect. How did you come to this inn?"

"I don't know," said Michael, wrestling as he spoke with the largest
roast chicken he had ever seen. "I think I missed a turning. I've been
at Lechlade all day."

"We may as well ride back together," Hazlewood proposed.

After dinner they talked and smoked for a while in the inn parlor, and
then with half-a-moon high in the heavens they scudded back to Oxford.
Hazlewood invited Michael to come up to his rooms for a drink.

"Do you know many Balliol people?" he asked.

Michael named a few acquaintances who had been the fruit of his acting
in The Merchant of Venice.

"I daresay some of that push will be in my rooms. Other people use my
rooms almost more than I do myself. I think they have a vague idea
they're keeping a chapel, or else it's a relief from the unparagoned
brutality of the college architecture."

Hazlewood was right in his surmise, for when he and Michael reached his
rooms, they seemed full of men. It was impo