Dublin to-night and drag it out
of the young pup by force. It'll be a comfort anyhow to be dealing with
somebody I can kick. These girls are the very devil."

"No. 175 Trinity College is the address," I said. "J is the initial. If
he's not in his rooms when you call just ask where the 3rd A. happens to
be playing."

"The what?"

"It's a hockey eleven and it's called the 3rd A. Miss Beresford told me
so and I think we may rely on it that she, at least, speaks the truth.
Selby-Harrison sometimes plays halfback and sometimes inside left, but
anybody would point him out to you."

Titherington took several careful notes in his book.

"It's not much of a chance," I said, "but it will keep you busy for a
while and anything is better than sitting still and repining."

"In the infernal fix we're in," said Titherington, "anything is worth
trying."

CHAPTER XIV

During the time that Titherington and I were thrown together I learned
to respect and admire him, but I never cared for him as a companion.
Only once, so far as I recollect, did I actually wish to see him. The
day after I gave him the hint about Hilda's mother I waited for him
anxiously. I was full of curiosity. I wanted to know what Hilda's
surname was, a matter long obscure to me, which Titherington, if any man
living, would find out. I also wanted to know how Hilda's mother took
the news of her daughter's political activity. I waited for him all day
but he did not visit me. Toward evening I came to the conclusion that
he must have found himself obliged to go up to Dublin in pursuit of
Selby-Harrison, junior. I spent a pleasant hour or two in picturing
to myself the interview between them. Titherington had spoken of using
violent means of persuasion, of dragging the surname of Hilda out of the
young man. He might, so I liked to think, chase Selby-Harrison round
the College Park with a drawn sword in his hand. Then there would
be complications. The Provost and senior fellows, not understanding
Titherington's desperate plight, would resent his show of violence,
which would strike them as unseemly in their academic groves. Swift,
muscular porters would be sent in pursuit of Titherington, who would,
himself, still pursue Selby-Harrison. The great bell of the Campanile
would ring furious alarm peals. The Dublin metropolitan police would at
last be called in, for Titherington, when in a determined mood, would be
very difficult to overpower.

All this was ple