xious to the modish majority not from any overt act
of contumely, but for his general bearing and plebeian origin. This
derided Smithers lived on the ground floor of the Palladian fragment
known as New Quad. The back of New Quad looked out on the deer-park, and
it was unanimously resolved to invade his rooms from the window, so that
surprise and alarm would strike at the heart of Smithers.

Half a dozen freshmen--Avery, Lonsdale, Grainger, Cuffe, Sinclair, and
Michael--all rendered insensitive to the emotions of other people by the
amount of champagne they had drunk, set out to harry Smithers. Michael
alone possibly had a personal slight to repay, since Smithers had been
one of the freshmen who had sniggered at his momentary mortification in
the rooms of Carben, the Rugby secretary, during his first week. The
others were more vaguely injured by Smithers' hitherto undisturbed
existence. Avery disliked his face: Lonsdale took exception to his
accent: Grainger wanted to see what he looked like: Cuffe was determined
to be offensive to somebody: and Sinclair was anxious to follow the
fashion.

Not even the magic of the moonlit park deterred these social avengers
from their vendetta. They moved silently indeed over the filmy grass and
paused to hearken when in the distance the deer stampeded in alarm
before their progress, but the fixed idea of Smithers' reformation kept
them to their project, and perhaps only Michael felt a slight sense of
guilt in profaning this fairy calm with what he admitted to himself
might very easily be regarded as a piece of stupid cruelty. Outside
Smithers' open window they all stopped; then after hoisting the first
man onto the dewy sill, one by one they climbed noiselessly into the
sitting-room of the offensive Smithers. Somebody turned on the electric
light, and they all stood half-abashed, surveying one another in the
crude glare that in contrast with the velvet depths and silver shadows
of the woodland they had traversed seemed to illuminate for one moment
an unworthy impulse in every heart.

The invaders looked round in surprise at the photographs of what were
evidently Smithers' people, photographs like the groups in the parlors
of country inns or the tender decorations of a housemaid's mantelpiece.

"I say, look at that fringe," gurgled Avery, and forthwith he and
Lonsdale collapsed on the sofa in a paroxysm of strangled mirth.

Michael, as he gradually took in the features of Smithers'