The Castle Inn | Page 9

but a year from school!
Ah, those were charming days! Great days!'
'And nights!' said Sir George, lying back in his chair and looking at the
other with eyes half shut, and insolence half veiled. 'Do you remember
the faro bank at Florence, Tommy, and the three hundred livres you lost
to that old harridan, Lady Harrington? Pearls cast before swine you
styled them, I remember.'
'Lord, Sir George!' Mr. Thomasson cried, vastly horrified. 'How can
you say such a thing? Your excellent memory plays you false.'
'It does,' Soane answered, smiling sardonically. 'I remember. It was
seed sown for the harvest, you called it--in your liquor. And that
touches me. Do you mind the night Fitzhugh made you so prodigiously
drunk at Bonn, Tommy? And we put you in the kneading-trough, and
the servants found you and shifted you to the horse-trough? Gad! you
would have died of laughter if you could have seen yourself when we
rescued you, lank and dripping, with your wig like a sponge!'

'It must have been--uncommonly diverting!' the Reverend Frederick
stammered; and he smiled widely, but with a lack of heart. This time
there could be no doubt of the pinkness that overspread his face.
'Diverting? I tell you it would have made old Dartmouth laugh!' Sir
George said, bluntly.
'Ha, ha! Perhaps it would. Perhaps it would. Not that I have the honour
of his lordship's acquaintance.'
'No? Well, he would not suit you, Tommy. I would not seek it.'
The Reverend Frederick looked doubtful, as weighing the possibility of
anything that bore the name of lord being alien from him. From this
reflection, however, he was roused by a new sally on Soane's part. 'But,
crib me! you are very fine to-night, Mr. Thomasson,' he said, staring
about him afresh. 'Ten o'clock, and you are lighted as for a drum! What
is afoot?'
The tutor smirked and rubbed his hands. 'Well, I--I was expecting a
visitor, Sir George.'
'Ah, you dog! She is not here, but you are expecting her.'
Mr. Thomasson grinned; the jest flattered him. Nevertheless he
hastened to exonerate himself. 'It is not Venus I am expecting, but
Mars,' he said with a simper. 'The Honourable Mr. Dunborough, son to
my Lord Dunborough, and the same whose meritorious services at the
Havanna you, my dear friend, doubtless remember. He is now
cultivating in peace the gifts which in war--'
'Sufficed to keep him out of danger!' Sir George said bluntly. 'So he is
your last sprig, is he? He should be well seasoned.'
'He is four-and-twenty,' Mr. Thomasson answered, pluming himself
and speaking in his softest tones. 'And the most charming, I assure you,
the most debonair of men. But do I hear a noise?'

'Yes,' said Sir George, listening. 'I hear something.'
Mr. Thomasson rose. 'What--what is it, I wonder?' he said, a trifle
nervously. A dull sound, as of a hive of bees stirred to anger, was
becoming audible.
'Devil if I know!' Sir George answered. 'Open the window.'
But the Reverend Frederick, after approaching the window with the
intention of doing so, seemed disinclined to go nearer, and hovered
about it. 'Really,' he said, no longer hiding his discomposure. 'I fear that
it is something--something in the nature of a riot. I fear that that which
I anticipated has happened. If my honourable friend had only taken my
advice and remained here!' And he wrung his hands without disguise.
'Why, what has he to do with it?' Soane asked, curiously.
'He--he had an accident the other night,' Mr. Thomasson answered. 'A
monstrous nuisance for him. He and his noble friend, Lord Almeric
Doyley, played a little trick on a--on one of the College servants. The
clumsy fellow--it is marvellous how awkward that class of persons
is--fell down the stairs and hurt himself.'
'Seriously?'
'Somewhat. Indeed--in fact he is dead. And now there is a kind of
feeling about it in the town. I persuaded Mr. Dunborough to take up his
quarters here for the night, but he is so spirited he would dine abroad.
Now I fear, I really fear, he may be in trouble!'
'If it is he they are hooting in St. Aldate's,' Sir George answered drily, 'I
should say he was in trouble! But in my time the gownsmen would
have sallied out and brought him off before this. And given those
yelpers a cracked crown or two!'
The roar of voices in the narrow streets was growing clearer and more
threatening. 'Ye-es?' said the Reverend Frederick, moving about the
room, distracted between his anxiety and his respect for his companion.

'Perhaps so. But there is a monstrous low, vulgar set in College
nowadays; a man of spirit has no chance with them. Yesterday they had
the insolence to break into my noble friend's rooms