Peter, as the egg boiled, looked back rather wistfully over his year.
It seemed a very long time ago since he had come up. His had been an
undistinguished arrival; he had not come as a sandwich man between two
signboards that labelled his past career and explained his path that was
to be; he had been unaddressed to any destination. The only remark on his
vague and undistinguished label had perhaps been of the nature of
"Brittle. This side up with care." He had no fame at any game; he did not
row; he was neither a sporting nor, in any marked degree, a reading man.
He did a little work, but he was not very fond of it or very good. The
only things one could say of him were that he seemed to have an immense
faculty of enjoyment and a considerable number of friends, who knew him
as Margery and ate muffins and chocolates between tea and dinner in his
rooms.
He had been asked at the outset by one of these friends what sort of
things he meant to "go in for." He had said that he didn't exactly know.
"Must one go in for anything, except exams?" The friend, who was
vigorously inclined, had said that one certainly ought. One could--he had
measured Peter's frail physique and remembered all the things he couldn't
do--play golf. Peter had thought that one really couldn't; it was such a
chilly game. Well, of course, one might speak at the Union, said the
persevering friend, insisting, it seemed, on finding Peter a career.
"Don't they talk about politics?" enquired Peter. "I couldn't do that,
you know. I don't approve of politics. If ever I have a vote I shall sell
it to the highest female bidder. Fancy being a Liberal or a Conservative,
out of all the nice things there are in the world to be! There are
health-fooders, now. I'd rather be that. And teetotallers. A man told me
he was a teetotaller to-day. I'll go in for that if you like, because
I don't much like wine. And I hate beer. These are rather nice
chocolates--I mean, they were."
The indefatigable friend had further informed him that one might be a
Fabian and have a red tie, and encourage the other Fabians to wash. Or
one might ride.
"One might--" Peter had made a suggestion of his own--"ride a motor
bicycle. I saw a man on one to-day; I mean he had been on it--it was on
him at the moment; it had chucked him off and was dancing on him, and
something that smelt was coming out of a hole. He was such a long way
from home; I was sorry about it."
His friend had said, "Serve him right. Brute," expressing the general
feeling of the moment about men who rode motor bicycles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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