College stories; College students -- Fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Trinity College (University of Cambridge) -- Fiction
"You must not let yourself be led away by your high spirits," wrote
Mrs. Higginbotham, "and pray be careful that these new grand young
friends you have made do not lead you astray. I should like you to
keep a good character with your masters and bring home a good report at
the end of the term. My dear father often used to say that he would
rather my brothers won the conduct prize at school than any other, and
they always did so, which pleased my father very much until he
discovered that they used to buy the prizes themselves out of their
very liberal allowance of pocket money and write their master's name in
them, which was not right, and earned them a whipping from Mr.
Wilkinson who was at that time the head of the Lewisham Academy for
Young Gentlemen, where they were educated, as well as another from my
father, which they told me was far the worse of the two, as I can quite
credit, because my dear father, who made his own way in the world, had
been employed in early life in a furniture warehouse, and among his
duties was that of beating carpets."
Mr. Binney wrote in answer that little occurrences such as the one in
which he had taken part were common in Cambridge and increased the fame
of those who inaugurated them, and rebuked Mrs. Higginbotham for
talking of his "masters." "The 'Varsity is not a school, my dear
Martha," wrote Mr. Binney, "and we are allowed a great deal of freedom
to amuse ourselves as we please."
Mr. Binney and Lucius now saw very little of one another, but before
Mr. Binney had allied himself with Howden and his crew, Lucius had paid
him a visit one afternoon and found a young man with a long, solemn
face not unlike Minshull's sitting on Mr. Binney's sofa.
"Ah, Lucius," said Mr. Binney, "I'm glad you have come. This is your
mother's cousin, John Jermyn, whose father you may have heard me speak
of as a respected clergyman in Norfolk. John tells me he has gained a
scholarship at Queens' and I am very glad to hear it--very glad. It is
most laudable of him. We must go and call on him when we have time.
Let me see, where is Queens'? That little college at the end of the
Backs with a wooden bridge, isn't it? Quite so. A very nice little
college indeed. I should have liked to have been at Queens' myself if
I hadn't been at Trinity. Pity you couldn't come to Trinity, John.
However, we can't all be at the best college, can we?"
After a little more patronage from his uncle, John Jermyn took his
leave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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