"But," she said, after one of those delightful pauses which lovers know so well how to fill up, "you must not conjure up such silly fancies. Charles has often told me how easily you [288 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN] passed your - Little-go, isn't it called? - and he says you will have no trouble in obtaining your degree." "But two years is such a tremendous time to wait," urged our hero, who, like all lovers, was anxious to crown his happiness without much delay. "If you are resolved to think it long," said Miss Patty; "but it will enable you to tell whether you really like me. You might, you know, marry in haste, and then have to repent at leisure." And the end of this conversation was, that the fair special-pleader gained her cause, and that Mr. Verdant Green consented to return to Oxford, and not to dream of marriage until two years had passed over his head. The next night he slept at the Manor Green, Warwickshire. CHAPTER X. MR. VERDANT GREEN IS MADE A MASON. <VG288.JPG> MR. VERDANT GREEN and Mr. Bouncer were once more in Oxford, and on a certain morning had turned into the coffee-room of "The Mitre" to "do bitters," as Mr. Bouncer phrased the act of drinking bitter beer, when said the little gentleman, as he dangled his legs from a table, "Giglamps, old feller! you ain't a mason." "A mason! of course not." "And why do you say 'of course not'?" "Why, what would be the use of it?" "That's what parties always say, my tulip. Be a mason, and then you'll soon see the use of it." "But I am independent of trade." "Trade? Oh, I twig. My gum, Giglamps! you'll be the death of me some fine day. I didn't mean a mason with a hod of mortar; he'd be a hod-fellow, don't you see? - there's a fine old crusted joke for you - I meant a mason with a petticut, a freemason." "Oh, a freemason. Well, I really don't seem to care much about being one. As far as I can see, there's a great deal of mystery and very little use in it." "Oh, that's because you know nothing about it. If you were a mason you'd soon see the use of it. For one thing, when you go abroad you'd find it no end of a help to you. If you'll stand another tankard of beer I'll tell you an ~apropos~ tale." So when a fresh supply of the bitter beverage had been [AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 289] ordered and brought, little Mr. Bouncer, perched upon the table, and dangling his legs, discoursed as follows:- "Last Long, Billy Blades went on to the continent, and in the course of his wanderings he came across some gentlemen who turned out to be bandits, although they weren't dressed in tall hats and ribbons, and scarves, and watches, and velvet sit-upons, like you see them in pictures and at theatres; but they were rough customers for all that, and they laid hands upon Master Billy, and politely asked him for his money or his life. <VG289.JPG>