Page:Cuthbert Bede--Little Mr Bouncer and Tales of College Life.djvu/70

50 about here without your academicals? Go to your College, at once, sir; and to-morrow' Here the twin cut him short: 'I have no College.' 'No College, sir!' cried the Dean; 'do you mean to deny that you are Downton of St. Vitus's?' 'Indeed, I do,' said the twin. The Dean rubbed his eyes, and could bear matters no longer. 'You shall be punished for your impertinence, sir; you shall hear more of this!' and then he walked off in high dudgeon. The end of it was, that the other brother was summoned to appear before the Dean, where the matter might have been carried on much further; but he thought it best to save himself trouble by taking his twin brother with him, and explaining circumstances. The Dean, who is a very jolly fellow, laughed heartily at his mistake, and made them stay and have a glass of wine with him."

"Talking of wine," said little Mr. Bouncer, "which of you men are going to Effingham's Little-go Wine to-night? Don't all speak at once."

Two or three responded in the affirmative; and Mr. Bouncer's question caused the conversation to turn upon the recent "Little-go" and "Great-go." The examinations of that day were not complicated by the introduction of "Mods." Enough, for most men, were the "Smalls" and "Greats;" some men, indeed, found them to be more than enough; and it was of one of these unfortunates that mention was now made.

"Poor Ellison has been plucked again," said Mr. Flexible Shanks. "Although the examiner blandly asked him if he desired to maintain his opinion, yet Ellison persisted that etsi was the perfect of a verb, of which etiam was the subjunctive mood; and he further hurt the examiner's feelings by rashly asserting that clam