Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/239

 One-fourth of the whole, one-third, one-half, nay, even more than all that, were to return as they came, to the terrible exposure of England's inferiority, as compared at any rate with triumphant Italy. Betting in those days did not, however, continue in the degrading and mercenary form of previous centuries. The loser of a bet was, at this time, usually bound to write an article upon any subject whatever which the winner might prescribe. Upon honour he was bound also to write without help; so that these constrained articles formed a very characteristic literature of the age, very trying to the writers, and very amusing, at the least, to every one else. And so the "Bet Magazines" came in for very general reading, and formed, in fact, quite a noticeable section of literature.

So soon as business opened, our authorities, confident in all their arrangements, were ready with their programme of surprises for the other side. As surprise the first, we at once intimated that our numbers would be strictly limited to exactly those of the other side. Any less confident feeling would have preferred a larger number on our side, as giving us a better chance. Again, the options in precedure being with us, as the challenged party, we at once declared, as surprise number two, for the Alphabetic course. This meant no less than that the first or preliminary introductions, by pairing in the alphabetic order of the names, would be committed to absolute chance. This seemed mere blank defiance on our part. The other, and much more usual mode, as giving better or freer opportunities to seek out mutual suitability, was to make the introductions quite general, and thus leave the young people more entirely to their own