them off so fast. Didn't you say that one flag belonged to
the University, but the University flag is surely dark blue?"

And then I had to explain that University was a college and not the
whole place, and she replied that she knew so much more about Cambridge
than Oxford, and complained that our colleges had very confusing names.
"Oriel!" she said scornfully, "it reminds me of a window, and then you
have no originality. Exeter, Worcester, Lincoln, why they are just
names of towns, you can find them all in Bradshaw."

"Well, at any rate Bradshaw's got nothing to do with it," I replied.
"These colleges are hundreds of years old, and Bradshaw's a chicken
compared with them."

"What dreadful slang. Fancy calling Bradshaw a chicken!" she
exclaimed. "Besides, you have a college called Keble, and my father
knew Dr. Keble, so that _can't_ be hundreds of years old. No,
Cambridge have chosen their names better than Oxford."

"Sidney Sussex," I said, for I thought it necessary to make some reply;
"it's more like the name of one of Ouida's heroes than a college."

She shook her head gently. "I can't get over your colleges sounding
like railway-stations," she answered.

"You must blame the bishops who founded them and not Bradshaw or me," I
replied, for I was getting very tired.

"Some one told me Keble is built of red-brick," she said.

"Red-brick is so bright," I answered, but I wanted to say something
quite different, and at last a dim noise which quickly developed into a
tremendous roar told us that the boats were coming.

Brasenose paddled home first, and not one of the next six boats were in
any danger of being caught. It was reserved for us and Merton to give
the people on the barges some excitement, but when I saw Merton
pressing us fearfully I wished that I was not hemmed in by a crowd of
ladies. I yelled tremendously because I could not help myself, and
Mrs. Faulkner, after saying something which I did not catch, put her
hands over her ears. But shouting was useless. The abominable thing
happened right in front of our barge, and when I saw our cox's hand go
up to show that all was over, it was a very bad moment indeed.

"Poor St. Cuthbert's, how very unfortunate they are," I heard a girl
say; and some one else answered, "Yes, it's quite pathetic, so
different from what one used to expect from them, but I am told that
they are not the college they were." That remark made me feel furious,
and it was