as true as far as it went, but hard
luck on Jack all the same.

Bunny wanted to have a procession to the station when Jack went away,
but he absolutely refused to have any fuss whatever, and altogether
took his luck like a sportsman.

If I had only waited for him, or never bothered him to go out at all,
this would never have happened, and tired as I have often been of
myself, I do not think I have ever felt more utterly wretched than I
was during the last few days of that term when I, who ought really to
have been in Jack's place, was still in Oxford, and Jack was with his
very angry people.

I went to the Warden and told him that Jack would never have gone out
of college that night if it hadn't been for me, but all he said was
that the Proctor had taken a serious view of the case, and he would not
have anybody in the college brawling in the streets. I also wrote to
Jack's people and told them that the whole thing was my fault, but his
father's answer was very short and disagreeable; he had entirely lost
his temper.

Dennison and his friends made the most of this misfortune, and I
suppose it was natural that they should think it a comical finish to
Jack's attempts at working. For the rest of the term I did not care
what happened to anybody or anything. I was thoroughly sick with my
luck, and when you are born with a faculty for disobeying rules and
offending authorities and have trampled upon your inclinations for a
long year without any result except disaster, it is enough to make you
think that fighting Nature is a perfectly absurd thing to do. It was
very fortunate that the term was nearly over, for I had a mad idea that
the best way to make up to Jack for getting him sent down was to get
sent down myself; but The Bradder, who knew how foolish I could be,
nipped my demonstrations in the bud, and gave me some of the
straightest advice I have ever listened to. He was very rude indeed.
One of the few good things about this term was that Fred batted
splendidly, he was not successful afterwards against Cambridge, but we
had every reason for thinking that they were an exceptionally strong
eleven. I bowled faster than ever, and a little straighter than the
year before; I was said to be the fastest bowler at Oxford, and I heard
two men saying in Vincent's that their idea of bliss was my bowling on
a good wicket. But when I lowered a newspaper and showed myself they
pretended that it was a joke.

CHAPTER X