Page:Cuthbert Bede--Little Mr Bouncer and Tales of College Life.djvu/145



OINTING with his gold-headed ebony cane to the copy of the "Times" over which Mr. Bouncer had been nodding, Dr. Dustacre said, interrogatively, "Fond of reading?"

"That all depends upon the sort of reading that I get hold of," replied Mr. Bouncer, as he thought of the leading article that he had just been dozing over, when the sonorous sentences on the political crisis in Moldavia had failed to excite or amuse him. "A good murder or a daring burglary is interesting, so is a prize-fight, for the matter of that."

"Do you prefer the perusal of works of modern fiction to the study of classical authors?" asked Dr. Dustacre.