Page:Cuthbert Bede--Little Mr Bouncer and Tales of College Life.djvu/310

290 ,—and that all kinds of things are going to be done, and that no end of people are there,—Fanny among the rest, and what an awful state she 's in about my preferring staying up here to going down there, and all that sort of thing. Now, who could stand this? Especially when he thinks of the intense dulness of this hole. So I have made up my mind and my carpet-bag to go by the 8.50 train, and I shall get to Hammersleigh in time for dinner. Mother Tester is to send off the heavy baggage by the next train. Quicken her about it, there 's a good fellow, for I want to come out strong at our county ball on the 31st, and all my Sunday-going toggery can't be stowed in my carpet-bag. And do go home yourself, old fellow, by the next train; it 's the proper thing to do: and, depend upon it, too much reading is bad for the lungs; I feel mine going already; and don't victimise yourself with the brutalising books, but get away home to the women, and have a bit of polish, and you 'll ever bless the advice of yours, in a railway hurry, "."

I would much rather pass over the events of the day. I should not like to expose myself in the eyes of the public, as I feel I did in the eyes of the respectable Mrs. Tester. But I did not go home by the next train; I stayed where I was. I laughed a hollow "Ha! ha!"—like I had heard the Stage Pirates and Villains do; and I rather think I wished myself a stage villain, that I might do somebody an injury, and expend the fury of my gloomy anger. Hall-time came, and I slank across the Quad, for my dinner. There was a cloth laid for me across the end of one of the long tables, and the nearest chandelier had two of its lamps lit for my special benefit. Of course there was no High-table; any of the Dons, who were still in residence, would dine