wise remark.

"There are other things to see in Oxford besides the bumping races," I
answered.

Nina sniffed very audibly, but Mrs. Faulkner hastened to the rescue.

"I think Godfrey is quite right," she said; "it is disappointing to
find that the colleges in which we are especially interested are so
unlucky, but Nina hasn't seen Oxford before, and I am sure she will be
delighted with it;" and Nina, who really could be quite nice when she
liked, forgave Fred and me for the iniquities of our eights, and
answered that she was longing to go out.

Of course Mrs. Faulkner fell to my lot, and while we walked down the
Broad it pleased her to talk about Nina and to make me say that she was
very pretty. I did think that Nina was not bad-looking, but she was my
sister and I should as soon have thought of saying that she was
wonderfully pretty, as I should of declaring that there was a striking
resemblance between the Apollo Belvedere and myself, and my imagination
has never carried me as far as that. As I was not saying much about
Nina Mrs. Faulkner tried to make me talk about myself, but I
interrupted her.

"This is St. Cuthbert's," I said; "shall we go in?"

She looked at me and smiled. "You are really rather extraordinary,
Godfrey; if any one tries to flatter you, you shut up like a hedgehog.
I am sure you have improved immensely and I am beginning to like you
very much," she declared.

I simply detested her at that moment, for when people make remarks like
that I feel as if some one was pouring cold water down my spine, and as
I meant to show Nina round St. Cuthbert's I managed to change
companions in the lodge, and left Fred to listen to the improvements in
himself, which Mrs. Faulkner, with her great gift for romance, was sure
to say that she had discovered.

As soon as I got Nina into the big St. Cuthbert's quad she forgot that
she had started by almost quarrelling with me. I was born,
unfortunately, without a keen eye for beautiful things, and even when I
see something which I like to look at again and again, some scene which
gives you a peaceful feeling or a picture which helps you to forget
that there is anything ugly in the world, I cannot express myself.
When I like anybody I want to tell them so, but once when I saw a
splendid sunset in Bavaria and said, "How simply ripping," my father
told me not to make a fool of myself, and somehow or other I felt that
he was right. So I was very glad that I had to