College stories; College students -- Fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Trinity College (University of Cambridge) -- Fiction
conviction that if they had been left alone they would have done what
they meant to do and avenged the defeat Piper had administered to
Lucius. At any rate they had given him a lesson which he wouldn't
forget in a hurry. The football men made a great deal of the fact that
they had been overpowered by superior numbers. _They_ were also
greatly cheered by the conviction that they had given their opponents
something that they wouldn't forget in a hurry.
The sequel to the fracas was rather curious. It resulted in an entire
healing up of the feud that had arisen, no one quite knew how, for it
dated from before the issue of the _New Court Chronicle_. These
quarrels between two sets of men are rare in the University, but they
sometimes arise and continue for a year or so and then die away. This
one would have disappeared slowly in due course, because no two sets of
men can be said to be absolutely clear and distinct one from another,
but are merged at some points by friendships between their respective
members. But, the matter having been brought to a head by the quarrel
between Lucius and Piper, and the bad blood let off, the ill-feeling
disappeared as if by magic, and men who had fought with one another on
that night by the fountain might have been seen in one another's rooms
later on in the term the best of friends.
There was one exception to the general amicability. Piper, who was an
evil-tempered fellow, emerged from the tussle in a black rage, and
continued in it for much longer than a normally constituted man would
have found such a state of mind possible.
The Senior Dean being wise in his generation, and having a fairly
shrewd idea as to how the unseemly fracas had arisen, and what was
likely to be its result, dealt lightly with the offenders. There were
a good many official interviews and a few "gates," and then the matter
was allowed to drop. None of the combatants actually told him in so
many words what had been the immediate origin of the fray, but Mr.
Binney having discovered the day after that Piper was more determined
than ever to continue the publication of his paper, had paid an early
visit to the Dean and asked him to suppress it officially. He had
brought the term's numbers already issued with him, and the Dean
gravely perused the "Binney Correspondence" then and there, while the
object of it sat uneasily before him watching his face.
"I don't defend this, Mr. Binney," said the Dean, laying down the
papers on his table when he had finished them. "A great deal of it is
very offensive. But, you know, you've got yourself to thank for most
of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account