o me to have the fixed idea that freshers
naturally drink too much, at least that was the impression the Subby
gave me."

"What happened to you?"

"I'm gated for a fortnight, and he talked a lot of tommy-rot."

"Well, I think it is most frightfully decent of you," I said.

"Oh, shut up," Ward answered, "I can't stand that. I have never done
anything of the kind before and shan't again. I simply couldn't have
faced you men if I hadn't owned up, and that ends it."

At that moment Dennison walked in wearing an enormous overcoat and a
Wellingham scarf round his neck, he looked as beautifully pink as ever,
and I hated the sight of him.

"This is such a blighted day that I am going to watch a footer match,"
he said, "it amuses me to see thirty people tumbling about in the mud,
and we can go and play pool at Wright's when we have had enough, if you
will come."

I did not intend to tell Dennison that I was ill, so I said I would go
if Ward would come with us, and as soon as we got into the Broad and
the rain fairly beat upon us, I began to feel much better and more
capable of being disagreeable to Dennison. I was in the state of mind
which makes one anxious to be unpleasant, the sort of mood in which
horrid people abuse servants or try to kick animals, and I was glad to
have Dennison, who deserved every rudeness imaginable, at my disposal.
But the worst of feeling so thoroughly disagreeable is that you are
ashamed of yourself so quickly. I am either violently angry or not
angry at all, and it is the people who are good at sulks and call them
dignity who get their own way in this world. I once tried to be
dignified at home, and I am not inclined to repeat the experiment; my
father told me not to be a fool, my sister walked about as if wrestling
with suppressed laughter, and my mother offered me various medicines.
Rudeness is my _role_, its intention is not so easily mistaken.

So I hung on to Dennison very earnestly, and though Ward did all he
knew to keep the peace, I had managed before we reached the Parks, to
convince both of them that our walk was a mistake.

We went to the far end of the ground where very few spectators were
standing, for an Oxford crowd always collect behind the goal of the
visiting side, hoping magnificently that by those means they will see
most of the game. It is very noble of them, but they are sometimes
disappointed, and this happened to be one of the days on which those
who were behi