The next morning Mr. Binney called on Mr. Rimington. He had to sit for a quarter of an hour in the Tutor's ante-room, where half-a-dozen undergraduates were awaiting their turn for admittance, looking over the bound volumes of _Punch_ which were laid on the table for their amusement. Two of them were talking, and Mr. Binney listened with open ears to their conversation which was "shoppy" in the extreme, and all the more interesting to him on that account. His appearance caused no surprise, for fathers do sometimes visit their son's Tutors, but Mr. Binney thought that every one present would know what he had come for, and felt a little shy. He was shown presently into the inner room, a handsome one with a beautiful ceiling, and was received very kindly by Mr. Rimington, who, however, seemed a little nervous. "I don't know, Mr. Binney," he said, with some hesitation, "whether I quite understood your letter." (Here he took Mr. Binney's application from an orderly little pile on his desk.) "It seemed to mean that you wished to enter yourself as an undergraduate of the college." Mr. Binney sat on a chair before the Tutor fumbling his hat between his knees. "Certainly, sir," he said, "that is what I meant." "There is an undergraduate of your name already entered, I believe, on Mr. Segrave's side?" "Yes, my boy Lucius. He passed the certificate examination last month." "Quite so. We are very glad to have him here. We hope he may row in the boat and help us to beat Oxford." Mr. Binney was surprised to find a don taking an interest in such a frivolous affair as a boat-race, but it put him a little more at his ease. "There is nothing to prevent a man of my age entering at the University, I suppose?" he inquired. "No," said Mr. Rimington with some hesitation, "not from our point of view. But have you thought what it means, Mr. Binney? It is a little--er--unusual for father and son to be undergraduate members of the same college at the same time. Our rules are not at all irksome for a young man--in fact, some people think we allow too much freedom, although we find that we get on better by not drawing the rein so tight as they do at some other colleges--but such as they are we could not relax them, and in your case they might very well prove to be irksome." "Not at all," said Mr. Binney, "not at all. I am prepared to take the rough with the smooth, and I can keep rules, if they are sensible rules, as well as the young fellows." Mr. Rimington laughed nervously. "May I ask your reason for wanting to come up to Cambridge so--so late in life?" he asked. "I have a passion for education, sir," said Mr. Binney. "I left school at the age of fourteen, and have worked hard at my business ever since. But money-making isn't the sole interest in life--besides I have got as much money as I want. I wish to regain some of the lost opportunities of youth." "Have you kept up your classical studies at all since you left school?" asked the Tutor.