College stories; College students -- Fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Trinity College (University of Cambridge) -- Fiction
"But you must have known who I was," said Lucius, a sudden light
breaking in on him, as he remembered those little glances of amusement
which had so thrilled his soul last term. "Gandey always used to read
out our names after the lecture."
"Yes, I knew who you were," said Betty, with a little laugh. "And I
wondered how long it would be before you knew who _I_ was."
Lucius felt that when he was alone again he would be very angry with
himself for not having cultivated the society of his cousin John more
assiduously, and also for having refused Mrs. Jermyn's invitation to
stay with them in the Christmas vacation, but at present he was so
happy that there was no room for regrets.
It was quite apparent to the maternal eyes of Mrs. Jermyn before lunch
was half over that this nice boy with his mother's eyes was head over
ears in love with her pretty little daughter, whom she still looked
upon as a child, in spite of the dignity conferred upon her by a
scholarship at Newnham. Her son, of course, saw nothing of the sort,
but he was pleased to find that his cousin, who was something of a hero
in his eyes, seemed to have taken a fancy to his sister, whom he found
it constantly necessary to keep in her place. He was afraid that Betty
would never learn to show reverence where reverence was due, but it was
a relief to find that Lucius apparently did not take her little
audacities amiss, and indeed seemed to be even amused by them. What
Mrs. Jermyn thought, it would not become us to disclose, but she
accepted Lucius's invitation for the whole party to lunch with him on
the next day, and her cordiality towards him had suffered no diminution
when they parted.
It was curious that Mr. Binney's name was not once mentioned between
them. John Jermyn had given his mother a rather highly coloured
account of our hero's peccadillos, and Betty had added her little
comments, for the fame of Mr. Binney's exploits had penetrated even the
walls of Newnham College.
"Oh, mother," she had said, "you really can't have anything to do with
cousin Peter. He is a horrid little man and leads Lucius such a life,
so everybody says. And Lucius is so popular with all the men. It is a
great shame."
"I never cared for Mr. Binney very much," said Mrs. Jermyn, "but I
should like you to ask Lucius to meet us, John. I should like to see
dear Lucy's boy, although I saw very little of her after her marriage."
So Lucius had come, been seen and had conquered, and went away again
full of delighted wonder at the surprising thing that had happened.
His first desire was to find the sympathetic Dizzy and impart to him
the astounding news. He tracked him down at the racquet courts and
brought him away when he had finished his game.
"I say, old man," he said in as calm a tone as he could muster, "I've
found out the name of that girl at last. What do you think it is?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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