at he was a most thoroughly good sort, but the idea of his being a
don struck me as being absurd. I put him on my side with the Warden
and the Bursar, and thought that Mr. Edwardes was in a hopeless
minority of one in persecuting me, for I looked upon the Subby as a man
who had been born to be neutral. I do not suppose that I should ever
have started my first crusade if I had known that it was going to cause
the mildest of sensations. As far as I had thought about it at all, I
had imagined that everybody in St. Cuthbert's would be glad to see the
college take its usual place again, and certainly I had no idea that I
should be violently supported and opposed. The captains of everything
were in favour of less slackness, but Dennison and all his set said
that an Oxford college was not a public school, and talked a lot of
nonsense about the iniquity of compulsory games. No further proof is
needed to show how unfair they were, for a man must be mad to dream of
compulsory games at Oxford, and such an idea never entered my head.
But all this talking made me wish that I had never said or done
anything, and before long I was heartily tired of the whole thing, for
my own affairs became rather more than I could manage.

At the beginning of the term I had moved into larger rooms, and I was
elected to both Vincent's and the St. Cuthbert's wine club. Murray
advised me not to join the wine club, because I was an exhibitioner,
and the dons would be sure to fix their eyes steadfastly upon me if I
did. But Jack Ward was very anxious for me to join, and every other
member, except Dennison, who was only elected when I was, spoke to me
about it. So I became one of the twelve Mohocks, which only meant that
I could give a guest a good dinner three or four times a term, and
after that take him to the rooms of the club where there was a big
dessert, and old Rodoski, who was concealed in the bedder, unless some
one asked him to show himself, provided music. When we had finished
with Rodoski we went out of college and played pool, and then we came
back and played cards. There was not much harm about the whole thing,
and occasionally it was quite dull, but some of our dons had got hold
of the idea that a Mohock must be a rowdy and riotous person. Mr.
Edwardes was one of them, and I found out very soon that he considered
that I ought not to have joined the club. I did not, however, feel in
the least like resigning, for though there were