et level with me," Dennison replied.

"You will always have to wear a cap and gown now," Learoyd remarked.

But Dennison took no notice of this advice.

"Where's Lambert?" he asked; "everybody else seems to be here except
him and that fool, Bunny Langham."

"We don't know, he has not come in yet," Collier answered, and at that
moment there was a rap at the door, and as soon as Lambert got into the
porch I put my head out of the window and told him to come up to Ward's
rooms. As he walked across the quad I saw that he had been having a
rough time of it, for his clothes did not look as immaculate as usual.
He was carrying an overcoat over his arm, and his shirt and collar had
given way so badly that the first thing he did when he got into the
room was to go to a looking-glass, and see how he could improve the
appearance of things. A lot of men asked him where he had been, but he
had forgotten that any of us had seen him start after Dennison, and he
answered that he had just been for a stroll. "I like to have a walk by
myself after a noise," he added; "the heat of that room made me feel
absolutely ill."

Then Ward could not restrain himself any longer, and told Dennison that
we all knew Lambert had been running after him, and that there had been
no proctor and bull-dogs in the High.

"Coming suddenly out of a hot room into the open air always affects
me," Lambert said. "I made up my mind I would catch Dennison if I ran
until my legs gave way."

"It's all a silly lie," Dennison exclaimed; "I was chased by the big
bull-dog; I should have seen that shirt, which was white when you
started."

"I had on an overcoat," was Lambert's reply.

"Did you go to Iffley?" Collier asked.

"Iffley? Good heavens, no, I never went any further than Magdalen
Bridge."

There was such a shout of laughter that I believe I should have thought
anybody else except Dennison had been rotted enough.

"Then I _was_ chased by a bull-dog!" he said emphatically.

"You weren't chased by any one after I stopped, for I sat on the bridge
for quite ten minutes, and then I thought I would come home by Long
Wall Street, the High being rather exposed at night. I made an
unfortunate choice." He shot his cuffs down, but they were terribly
limp, and he looked at them with disgust.

"What happened?" Ward asked.

"I met the proggins, and having got my wind I charged right past him.
Then I ran round by the Racquet Courts, and finally hid in a ga