I think Mr. Ward must have a very bad influence over you."

Nina laughed and said she insisted upon meeting Jack.

"I sincerely hope you won't do anything of the kind," Mrs. Faulkner
stated. "The dons must know what is best for the undergraduates, and
such tricks are very unbecoming; I am sure my husband always admitted
this when he was at Cambridge."

It was hardly fair to pull in Mr. Faulkner, so I said that I would get
some tea, which put an end to the discussion, for I did not think it
wise to say that I had asked Jack to meet Nina at luncheon on the
following day. By the time we had finished tea Fred was tired of Mrs.
Faulkner, and he slipped off with Nina in a way which was really too
clever to be very nice. Mrs. Faulkner, however, was quite amiable, and
she smiled on me steadily from the beginning of the Broad Walk to the
end of it, which as a feat of endurance I feel it my duty to mention.

When we got down to the river the band was playing on the 'Varsity
barge, and Mrs. Faulkner really began to enjoy herself. The flags
flying from all the barges pleased her, and the smartness of the ladies
made her compare the scene to church parade on a June morning in Hyde
Park. I knew nothing about church parades and very little about Hyde
Park, but I said that I thought this must beat anything in London.
Then I got a chair for her and looked round to find Nina and Fred, but
as I could not see them anywhere, I said that I must go and hunt for
them. Mrs. Faulkner, however, had no intention of letting me go, and I
had to be a kind of Baedeker for over half-an-hour. I was not a very
good Baedeker, I confess, but I had found out that one way to make
things uncomfortable with this lady was not to answer every question
she asked, so I supplied her with a good deal of information which I
sincerely hope she never passed on to any one else. Unfortunately our
barge is near the 'Varsity's, and during the races a string of little
flags fly from the 'Varsity barge to show the order of the colleges on
the river. I knew them well enough down to ours, and I even knew the
ninth and tenth, but when Mrs. Faulkner wanted to know the whole lot, I
had to use my imagination. I know that I said Hertford twice and I
finished up with All Souls, who only have about three undergraduates,
so if they had rowed at all they would have been several men short.

"I should like to write the colleges down if I had a pencil," she said;
"you rattle