I had just sat down to survey my labours when Murray came in and proposed we should go for a walk in the town, and as I was perfectly sick of my room I was quite ready to go. Although the time was barely four o'clock and the sun doesn't set for another hour in the middle of October, it was half dark and drizzling with rain as we walked down Turl Street and came into The High. But I had got rid of my gloom and was eager to spend money. I did not quite know what I wanted but that was not of much consequence. We went into a shop which seemed to be exactly the place for any one who wished to buy things, and did not care much what he bought. Before I came out of it I had bought two chairs, a standard lamp, a small book-case, an enormous bowl—which got in my way for two years until somebody smashed it—a tea-set, a small table and half-a-dozen china shepherdesses. I then went to other shops and made more purchases, while Murray looked on and smiled until I was waylaid by an accommodating man in the Cornmarket, who wanted to sell me a fox-terrier pup, and was ready to keep it for me if I had no place for it; and then I was told not to be a fool. That man's opinion of Murray is not worth mentioning.
When we got back to college it was past five o'clock, and between us we managed to find everything that was necessary for tea. I had a fire in my room, but Murray had not one in his; he had tea-cups, but I had none; while I had things to eat, which our cook at home had declared would be useful and I had most reluctantly brought with me. We were in the middle of this very substantial meal when Fred Foster came in, and from his glance round my room I saw that he thought it was a fairly dismal spot.
"Rather like an up-stairs dungeon," I said. "Have you got a better place than this?"
"It is bigger and not so stuffy," he answered; "but it won't make you very jealous."
"You wait until I have got all the things I have just bought, and then you will think this no end of a place," I remarked.
"If any one can get inside," Murray put in.
"It will be rather a squash," I admitted; "I've spent over twelve pounds already."
"That's just the sort of thing you would do," Foster said.
We sat and talked for an hour until Ward burst in, knocking and opening the door at the same moment.
Murray and Foster had been getting on splendidly together, but directly Ward came they hardly said a word. Possibly they did not get much chance, but any one could see that Foster had taken a dislike to Ward at sight.
Murray went away very soon and left the three of us together.
"I've been over to Woodstock in a dog-cart with Bunny Langham and Bob Fraser," Ward said. "By Jove, that cob of Bunny's can move. We got back in five-and-twenty minutes."
As I didn't know how far it was to Woodstock and didn't care, I said nothing, so Ward went on, "Bunny's a rare good sort; you ought to meet him."
"What college is he at?" I asked.
"At the House—Christchurch, you know." I did know, and thought the explanation cheek. "I have hired a gee from Carter's to-morrow, and am going to drive over to Abingdon with Bunny, will you come?"
"To-morrow's Sunday," I said.
"Yes, there is nothing else to do. The better the day the——" But I interrupted him.
"Don't talk rot, I hate those things. Are you going in a dog-cart?" I asked.
"Yes, it is Bunny's cart."
"I am jolly well not going to sit on the back seat of a dog-cart if I can help it; I would rather go about in a perambulator," I said.
"You are so confoundedly particular," he went on with a great guffaw of laughter, "but since it is Bunny's cart and I am going to drive I don't see how we can offer you any other seat."
"Who the blazes is Bunny?" I asked, for his name was beginning to get on my nerves, and Fred Foster sitting as dumb as a mute was enough to upset any one.
"I know him at home, his father is the Marquis of Tillford and his real name is Lord Augustus Langham, only his teeth stick out and every one calls him Bunny," Ward answered.
"Heaps of money?" I said.
"Plenty, I should think."
"Then he is no use to me, though he may be the best fellow in the world," I declared.
"You are a rum 'un, why he is just the sort of man who is some use."
"That depends," Foster said suddenly.
"Yes, it depends," I repeated, though I didn't know exactly what depended.
"What depends?" Ward asked Foster.
"Well, if a man hasn't got much money it is no use knowing a lot of men who have got no end."
"It never struck me that way. Perhaps you are right," and then turning to me, he added, "Come to breakfast anyhow to-morrow morning, Bunny won't be there then."
I promised to go, and then he left us. I walked back to Oriel with Foster and he had got a lot to say about Jack Ward. "Where in the world did you find that man?" was his first remark after we were alone.
"He found me," I said.
"I should lose him as soon as possible," Fred went on.
"I don't think that would be very easy," I answered, "and I don't believe he is a bad sort really."
"I'll bet he never came back from Woodstock in five-and-twenty minutes," Foster said.
CHAPTER III
THE RESULT OF THE FRESHERS' MATCH
If I had to describe in detail the first two or three weeks of my life