developed a habit of making
very long speeches, for which he apologized by saying that he believed
in heredity, came round and helped to make a noise. Whenever he got
the ghost of an opportunity he began to congratulate Jack, and he
required a very great deal of suppressing.

For a whole week Jack rowed in the boat, and then he had a sudden
attack of influenza. Somehow or other I had never thought it possible
that he could be ill, and I have never seen any one hurry up so much to
get well again. In ten days he was nearly all right, but when he was
put back into the boat he said he felt miserably weak, and I think he
went to work to prepare himself for a disappointment. At any rate when
it came Jack took his luck like a hero, for hardly anything more
crushing could have happened to him just then. I must say that the
President was as kind about it as any man could be; he knew what it
meant to Jack, and his sympathy was very real. But Jack himself
surprised all of us, he seemed to throw the whole thing behind him, and
I never heard him complain of anything except his wretched illness.

"I shall be fit next term," he said, "and if we get our boat near the
head of the river again it won't be so bad after all."

My last year in rooms with Fred, Jack and Henderson was the best of
four good years at Oxford. Everything, except Jack's luck, was so
exactly right, and I was most delightfully happy. The college was
doing as well as we could want, and most of the dons, led I am certain
by The Bradder, behaved splendidly. The Freshers' Wine became an
organized institution and ceased to be a sort of "hole and corner"
entertainment, at which every one made a most horrible noise because
they ought not to have made any at all. In my spare time, and I had
not much, I caught myself regretting that I had ever been stupid enough
to carry on long battles with Mr. Edwardes, it seemed to me that I
might have been more peaceful, but the fact remains that he and I were
not made for each other.

Until the time began to grow near for me to go down from Oxford I never
felt as strong an affection for the 'Varsity as I had for Cliborough.
I think the reason was that Oxford is such a huge place, that it took
me some time to realize how splendid it is. I missed the feeling of
unity which there was at Cliborough, and I supplied my loss by going
furiously to work in trying to make the college less slack. Certainly
St. Cuthbert's, owing mor