t you going to do a lot?" I interrupted him by asking.

"I have always done a lot; hunting three times a week is a lot when you
play footer and cards as well. We will read after dinner for three
hours."

I yawned again, for I had had very little fun for some time, and I felt
as if a little relaxation would do me good. An Irish M.P. was coming
to speak during that evening about the advantages of Home Rule, and
although I thought Home Rule meant the disruption of the Empire and
many other things, I wanted to hear what this man had to say, and to
see if anything exciting happened. The Bradder had told me that there
was a good deal to be said in favour of Home Rule, but I put him down
as a Radical and did not take any notice of him. The first thing I can
ever remember about politics was my father saying that Radicals talked
nothing but nonsense, and that had remained with me and was mixed up
with the things which I most truly believed. The Bradder, however,
made me think that Radicals were not bound to be hopeless persons. I
don't know how he did it, but I think it was by telling me that I was
one at heart. I never thought half so badly of them after that.

But if what I must apologize for calling my politics were rather wobbly
just then, ten thousand Bradders could not make me a Home Ruler, and
had I not known that other things happen at political meetings in
Oxford besides the ordinary programme, I might have been content to
stay in college and go on being dull and peaceable. As it was I
thought that Jack and I had earned something in the way of excitement,
and after a good deal of persuasion he started with me, but when we got
to the meeting the place was packed with an audience which, from the
noise, seemed to consist largely of undergraduates singing "Rule
Britannia." We talked eloquently to the men at the doors, without
getting past them. One of them told me that they had already admitted
far too many of our kind, and then added that there was no room for
anybody else whatever kind he might be, so we went over to Bunny
Langham's rooms, which--for he was not living in college--were opposite
the hall in which the M.P. was speaking. There were more than
half-a-dozen men in Bunny's rooms when we got to them, and I found out
that he had been scattering invitations broadcast during the afternoon.
A lot of other men came in soon afterwards, but nobody did anything
more extraordinary than sing out of tune until t