ke
Honor Mods."

"That will be for the college to decide."

"Supposing the college decided I was to read Chinese?" Michael inquired.

"There is no need for impertinence. Well, well, for the present I have
put you down for the lectures on Pass Moderations. You will attend my
lectures on Cicero, Mr. Churton on the Apologia, Mr. Carder on Logic,
and Mr. Vereker for Latin Prose. The weekly essay set by the Warden for
freshmen you will read to your tutor Mr. Ambrose."

Then he went on to give instructions about chapels and roll-calls and
dining in hall and the various regulations of the college, while the
Swiss mountains stared bleakly down at the chilly interview.

"Now you'd better go and see Mr. Ambrose," said the Senior Tutor, and
Michael left him. On the staircase he passed Lonsdale going up.

"What's he like?" asked Lonsdale.

"Pretty dull," said Michael.

"Does he keep you long?"

Michael shook his head.

"Good work," said Lonsdale cheerfully. "Because I've just bought a dog."
And he whistled his way upstairs.

Michael wondered what the purchase of a dog had got to do with the
Senior Tutor, but relinquished the problem on perceiving Mr. Ambrose's
name on the floor below.

The Dean's room was very much like the Senior Tutor's, and the
interview, save that it was made slightly more tolerable by the help of
a cigarette, was of much the same chilliness owing to Michael's
reiterated refusal to read Honor Moderations.

"I expected a little keenness," said Mr. Ambrose.

"I shall be keen enough when I've finished with Pass Mods," said
Michael. "Though what good it will be for me to read the Pro Milone and
the Apology all over again, when I read them at fifteen, I don't know."

"Then take Honor Moderations?" the Dean advised.

"I've given up classics," Michael argued, and as the cigarette was
beginning to burn his fingers and the problem of disposing of it in the
Dean's room seemed insoluble, he hurried out.

Lonsdale was whistling his way downstairs from his interview with Mr.
Ardle.

"Hallo, Fane, what did he say to you?"

"I think all these dons are very much like schoolmasters," growled
Michael resentfully.

"They can't help it," said Lonsdale. "I asked old Ardle if I could keep
a dog in college, and he turned as blue as an owl. Any one would think
I'd asked him if I could breed crocodiles."

In addition to these personal interviews the freshmen had certain
communal experiences to undergo. Among