College stories, American; Princeton (N.J.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Princeton University -- Fiction
He now wore the dark bad expression without any conscious effort. No
one asked him where the Greek lesson was any more. He seldom had to
blow his breath in fellows' faces. And at the club he was no longer
obliged to blink and say, "How do I look this morning?" they asked of
their own accord, "Full last night, Gus?" just as some people say
"Good-morning."
One evening, at about the beginning of the season known to some as
"bock beer time," he was in his room surrounded with a few of his own
sort, and a knock came at the door. But it was not a very loud one, so
he did not take the trouble to answer until there came a second knock,
an emphatic one. Then he emptied a lungful of cigarette-smoke and
shouted, "Come in and shut your damn racket." He looked up.
Lawrence was framed in the door-way, Lawrence the senior, with his
'varsity sweater and his impressive air.
On the campus Lawrence generally nodded to Thompson, when he
remembered him. Once, not long ago, he had walked up the rear stairs
of Dickinson with him and said, "What do you fellows have at this
hour?" and Gussie wondered when the clubs held their first elections.
With his words of apology and welcome Thompson felt a wave of
satisfaction at having a gang about the table with cards and beer-mugs
on it. He was glad he had strung the champagne-corks over the
mantel-piece.
All of the gang had arisen, and yet this was a Princeton room. If the
senior observed the unusual mark he showed little gratitude, for
without seeming to be aware of their presence he said, in his gruff
voice, "When will you be at leisure, Thompson?" and looked at his
watch.
He was the sort of senior that could do these things, and it had the
desired effect. They all remembered that they had engagements and
picked up their caps and said, "So long, old man," and got out. This
was not done constrainedly but as a perfectly natural thing. And
Gussie beamed.
The door slammed and the freshman said, "Have a drink, Lawrence."
The senior said, "No, I thank you," and then contradicted himself,
"Yes, I will take a little of that." He did not approve of little boys
having whiskey in their rooms and big cut-glass decanters on their
bookcases, but he remembered something. "That's good whiskey,
Thompson." Lawrence sipped and whiffed and held his glass to the
light, "excellent whiskey." He gravely smacked his lips. "It reminds
me of some Bourbon they once gave us down in Kentucky, on the Glee
Club trip--in Louisville, I think it was. They called it Pendennis
Club."
Thompson pushed a cigarette-case across the table. "That's Pendennis
Club," he replied, simply. "A friend of mine down there sends it to
me. I find you can't get good liquor in our part of the country. It's
all rot-gut." He twisted his pretty brows into a scowl and emptied his
small lungs of smoke aimed at the ceiling.
"I see," said Lawrence, looking interested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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