nsion on his part, for I
cannot pretend that I was always fair to him. I distrusted him so
thoroughly that I never believed a word he said, and the only possible
way for peace between us was for each of us to leave the other alone.
But this way did not suit him, for I suppose that I knew too many men
to be left out entirely from his consideration, and it seems to me that
it is more annoying for a man to be friendly when you want to have
nothing to do with him, than it is for anybody to take no notice of you
when you would be glad to be his friend. I did not, however, mean to
let Nina meet Dennison, for I never knew whom she might like or
dislike, and it would have been a most horrible complication if she had
fallen a victim to Dennison's smile. So I told him that Nina would not
be in Oxford for more than two or three days, and that I did not know
her plans, which was true enough as far as it went, and must have been
enough for him to understand what I meant.

Although I was useless in a boat, I was always most vigorously excited
during Eights' week. Three years before I went to Oxford St.
Cuthbert's had been head of the river, but we had by slow degrees
dwindled down to fifth, and in spite of one or two men who assured me
that we had a much better eight than we were thought to have, I knew
that we were more likely to go down than up. Still I am sorry for the
man who does not feel his nerves tingle at the prospect of a race, and
you tingle all the more if you do not expect to be beaten, so I tried
to forget the general opinion about our eight and to imagine that the
boat in front of us was going to have an anxious time.

Brasenose was head of the river, and after them came New College,
Magdalen, and Christ Church; we were fifth, and I took no interest in
the boat behind us, though I did know that it was Trinity. So keen was
I that I resolved to run with our boat if I could get any one to run
with me, and I asked quite half-a-dozen men before I found somebody who
was not looking after his own or somebody else's sisters. The man who
said he would run with me was Jack Ward, and he surprised me very much
when he told me that he would far rather see some of the racing than
sit on a barge with a crowd of ladies, and he even consented to run all
the first three nights and then help me to look after Nina when she
came up. He knew, I expect, that I was not likely to run very far, and
that there was no danger of his being