hey saw this chap Bellingham, before he had said five words they just
lay down on their bellies and wriggled. Chillingworth said that he
never saw anything like it. Bellingham seemed to take it as his right,
too, and strutted about among them and talked down to them like a Dutch
uncle. Pretty good for an undergrad. of Old's, wasn't it?"

"Why do you say you can't know Lee without knowing Bellingham?"

"Because Bellingham is engaged to his sister Eveline. Such a bright
little girl, Smith! I know the whole family well. It's disgusting to
see that brute with her. A toad and a dove, that's what they always
remind me of."

Abercrombie Smith grinned and knocked his ashes out against the side of
the grate.

"You show every card in your hand, old chap," said he. "What a
prejudiced, green-eyed, evil-thinking old man it is! You have really
nothing against the fellow except that."

"Well, I've known her ever since she was as long as that cherry-wood
pipe, and I don't like to see her taking risks. And it is a risk. He
looks beastly. And he has a beastly temper, a venomous temper. You
remember his row with Long Norton?"

"No; you always forget that I am a freshman."

"Ah, it was last winter. Of course. Well, you know the towpath along
by the river. There were several fellows going along it, Bellingham in
front, when they came on an old market-woman coming the other way. It
had been raining--you know what those fields are like when it has
rained--and the path ran between the river and a great puddle that was
nearly as broad. Well, what does this swine do but keep the path, and
push the old girl into the mud, where she and her marketings came to
terrible grief. It was a blackguard thing to do, and Long Norton, who
is as gentle a fellow as ever stepped, told him what he thought of it.
One word led to another, and it ended in Norton laying his stick across
the fellow's shoulders. There was the deuce of a fuss about it, and
it's a treat to see the way in which Bellingham looks at Norton when
they meet now. By Jove, Smith, it's nearly eleven o'clock!"

"No hurry. Light your pipe again."

"Not I. I'm supposed to be in training. Here I've been sitting
gossiping when I ought to have been safely tucked up. I'll borrow your
skull, if you can share it. Williams has had mine for a month. I'll
take the little bones of your ear, too, if you are sure you won't need
them. Thanks very much. Never mind a bag, I c