ral rule only the batting side had tea and the other XI. had to
take their chance of getting some. I believe we should have won that
match if Mr. Plumb had captained our side, but the Busters were
generally beaten, which possibly accounted for the fact that most of
the villages round Oxford said they were a splendid eleven. No team
which contained Lambert could help being splendid, but as regards
cricket we were the most futile side it is possible to imagine, and
Bagshaw, who was a really good sort, was also exactly the right man to
captain it.

In our second innings Lambert made nine runs, which was not a great
score for a man who said he had been asked to play for his county, but
was unfortunately enough to make him very pleased with himself, and
when he got into that state of mind he was a dangerous man, for he
always wanted to do something which was better left undone. On this
occasion he persuaded Jack Ward that a little dinner at The Reindeer
would be the most sporting way of finishing the evening, and I have
never seen any one support a suggestion more heartily than Mr. Plumb
did this one of Lambert's. He had a couple of beautiful ducklings
waiting to be cooked, some lamb which would be wasted upon any one but
real gentlemen, and some port which would make our hair curl. Collier
listened to this and thought it too good to miss, so he backed up
Lambert, and Ward, who did not seem enthusiastic over the hair-curling
port, said he would stay if I would. There were good reasons why I
should not stay and I mentioned them one by one, but although in the
lump they ought to have been enough to stop me, when mentioned singly
they did not seem to be very important. Ward, however, saw that I did
not want to stay, and he was on the point of chucking up the whole
thing when Dennison said to Mr. Plumb, "You see, some of us are
frightened to death of the dons; it is a fairly rotten state to be in,
because we daren't call our lives our own."

That remark was directed at me, and if I had been sensible I should
have taken no notice of it, but unluckily I am one of those wretched
people who hate to hear that I am frightened of anybody or anything,
and for Dennison to tell Mr. Plumb such silly nonsense made me furious.
Of course I said that I would stay, and I saw Dennison wink at Lambert;
the brute was for ever scoring off me, he had a most unrighteous way of
getting what he wanted.

For some reason or other Bagshaw was al