Page:Cuthbert Bede--Little Mr Bouncer and Tales of College Life.djvu/234

214 ownership of the faithful Thomas—had directed him to convey his compliments to the Vice-Chancellor, and would feel obliged by the information whether his maternal relative had yet disposed of her mangle:—"yessir!" Exit Scout, leaving his master solus.

Mr. Percival Wylde was seated in his easiest easy-chair, in his comfortable rooms in the fine old College of St. Boniface, Oxford, over a well-garnished breakfast-table, to which an Apicius, or even an Alderman, might not have disdained to sit down. And Mr. Percival Wylde was making the viands disappear in a way which seemed to demonstrate that Mr. P. W. was in the enjoyment of the rudest health; and this, notwithstanding the fact above alluded to, that, on that very morning, there would be sent in to the proper authorities an "Æger," or document to the effect that Mr. Percival Wylde was prevented attending Chapels, Lectures, and other University duties, in consequence of severe indisposition. A shrewd observer, on contemplating Mr. Percival Wylde's healthy countenance, and vigorous assaults on the breakfast fare, might, from these trifling circumstances, have drawn the deduction, that the young gentleman's "indisposition" was nothing more nor less than an indisposition, or unwillingness, to subject himself to the fatiguing routine of collegiate duties; and that he was in the enjoyment of a mens sana in corpore sano. Nevertheless, he was æger in the sight of Dons and Tutors; and his mantelpiece was furnished with three half-emptied physic bottles in support of the assertion that he was on the sick list.

As Mr. Percival Wylde concluded his breakfast with a draught of Buttery ale (they are famed for their beer at St. Boniface), and proceeded to fill a short clay pipe