ne, however, was a mistake. Mr. Edwardes said he was
not in a position to bargain with any undergraduate, and that he had no
doubt that should the dons require my assistance in managing the
college they would ask me to help them. After I had left him I should
think he must have regretted saying such sarcastic things, for Learoyd
only got a final warning that his exhibition would be taken away at the
end of the term unless he worked properly, and nothing whatever
happened to Collier. But I am afraid Edwardes never gave me the credit
for my essay which I felt that I deserved.

CHAPTER XIII

NINA COMES TO OXFORD

There can be few men in Oxford who do not enjoy themselves during
Eights' Week, and I imagine that the only miserable people to be found
are those who happen to be in an eight which is bumped several times
during the week. If any one is so misguided that he wants to make a
study of depression I should advise him to take a seat on the barge of
a college which has a very bad eight, and if he waits until the boat
comes back to the barge he will see some of the most unsmiling faces in
the world.

Rowing is a most serious form of sport, and no one can wonder that a
crew which has been bumped is unable to look very cheerful. It seems
to me that a rowing man deserves a lot of credit even if he rows very
badly; indeed I am not sure that the man who rows the worst does not
deserve the most credit, for he has gone through the same drudgery as
the rest of the crew, and has probably been sworn at a thousand times
more often. I should be very surprised if a rowing man at the end of
so much forcible criticism and strenuous labour could smile when his
boat is bumped. I know that if I had ever been in a boat which had
been bumped, and the only reason why I have not been is because I have
never rowed in a bumping race, I should want to hit somebody over the
head with my oar or denounce the cox. Coxes, indeed, have told me that
although they have never seen my first wish put into practice, my
second is such an ordinary occurrence that the cox who has not suffered
from it must be either deaf or a genius. And if a reasonable man
cannot help being sorry for an eight which has toiled many weeks only
to be bumped, I think he ought to be far more sorry for the cox, whose
cool appearance when the rest of his crew are hot and angry, is in
itself an aggravation.

I must say, however, that the only cox I ever knew well c