Part 4 (1/2)

”I trust he will, indeed, sir,” replied Mr. Green; ”it is the great wish of my heart. And I am sure that you will find my son both quiet and orderly in his conduct, regular in his duties, and always in bed by ten o'clock.”

”Well, I hope so too, Mis-ter Green,” said Dr. Portman, monosyllabically; ”but all the young gen-tle-men do pro-mise to be regu-lar and or-der-ly when they first come up, but a <vg034.jpg> term makes a great dif-fer-ence. But I dare say my young friend Mis-ter Vir-gin-ius,---”

”Verdant,” smilingly suggested Mr. Green.

”I beg your par-don,” apologized Dr. Portman; ”but I dare say that he will do as you say, for in-deed, my friend Lar-kyns speaks well of him.”

”I am delighted - proud!” murmured Mr. Green, while Verdant felt himself blus.h.i.+ng up to his spectacles.

”We are ve-ry full,” Dr. Portman went on to say, ”but as I do ex-pect great things from Mis-ter Vir-gin --- Verdant, Verdant, I have put some rooms at his ser-vice; and if you would like to see them, my ser-vant shall shew you the way.” The servant was accordingly summoned, and received orders to that effect; while the Master told Verdant that he must,

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 35]

at two o'clock, present himself to Mr. Slowcoach, his tutor, who would examine him for his matriculation.

”I am sor-ry, Mis-ter Green,” said Dr. Portman, ”that my en-gage-ments will pre-vent me from ask-ing you and Mis-ter Virg-- Ver-dant, to dine with me to-day; but I do hope that the next time you come to Ox-ford I shall be more for-tu-nate.”

Old John, the Common-room man, who had heard this speech made to hundreds of ”governors” through many generations of freshmen, could not repress a few pantomimic asides, that <vg035.jpg> were suggestive of anything but full credence in his master's words. But Mr. Green was delighted with Dr. Portman's affability, and perceiving that the interview was at an end, made his ~conge~, and left the Master of Brazenface to his Greek particles.

They had just got outside, when the servant said, ”Oh, there is the scout! ~Your~ scout, sir!” at which our hero blushed from the consciousness of his new dignity; and, by way of appearing at his ease, inquired the scout's name.

”Robert Filcher, sir,” replied the servant; ”but the gentlemen always call 'em by their Christian names.” And beckoning the scout to him, he bade him shew the gentlemen

[36 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

to the rooms kept for Mr. Verdant Green; and then took himself back to the Master.

Mr. Robert Filcher might perhaps have been forty years of age, perhaps fifty; there was cunning enough in his face to fill even a century of wily years; and there was a depth of expression in his look, as he asked our hero if ~he~ was Mr. Verdant Green, that proclaimed his custom of reading a freshman at a glance. Mr. Filcher was laden with coats and boots that had just been brushed and blacked for their respective masters; and he was bearing a jug of b.u.t.tery ale (they are renowned for their ale at Brazenface) to the gentleman who owned the pair of ”tops” that were now flas.h.i.+ng in the sun as they dangled from the scout's hand.

”Please to follow me, gentlemen,” he said; ”it's only just across the quad. Third floor, No. 4 staircase, fust quad; that's about the mark, ~I~ think, sir.”

Mr. Verdant Green glanced curiously round the Quadrangle, with its picturesque irregularity of outline, its towers and turrets and battlements, its grey time-eaten walls, its rows of mullioned heavy-headed windows, and the quiet cloistered air that spoke of study and reflection; and perceiving on one side a row of large windows, with great b.u.t.tresses between, and a species of steeple on the high-pitched roof, he made bold (just to try the effect) to address Mr. Filcher by the name a.s.signed to him at an early period of his life by his G.o.dfathers and G.o.dmothers, and inquired if that building was the chapel.

”No, sir,” replied Robert, ”that there's the 'All, sir, ~that~ is, - where you dines, sir, leastways when you ain't 'AEger,' or elseweer.

That at the top is the lantern, sir, ~that~ is; called so because it never has no candle in it. The chapel's the hopposite side, sir.

-Please not to walk on the gra.s.s, sir; there's a fine agen it, unless you're a Master. This way if ~you~ please, gentlemen!” Thus the scout beguiled them, as he led them to an open doorway with a large 4 painted over it; inside was a door on either hand, while a coal-bin displayed its black face from under a staircase that rose immediately before them. Up this they went, following the scout (who had vanished for a moment with the boots and beer), and when they had pa.s.sed the first floor they found the ascent by no means easy to the body, or pleasant to the sight. The once white-washed walls were coated with the uncleansed dust of the three past terms; and where the plaster had not been chipped off by flying porter-bottles, or the heels of Wellington boots, its surface had afforded an irresistible temptation to those imaginative undergraduates who displayed their artistic genius in candle-smoke cartoons of the heads of the University, and other popular and unpopular characters. All Mr.

Green's caution, as he crept up the

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 37]

dark, twisting staircase, could not prevent him from crus.h.i.+ng his hat against the low, cobwebbed ceiling, and he gave vent to a very strong but quiet anathema, which glided quietly and audibly into the remark, ”Confounded awkward staircase, I think!”

”Just what Mr. Bouncer says,” replied the scout, ”although he don't reach so high as you, sir; but he ~do~ say, sir, when he, comes home pleasant at night from some wine-party, that it ~is~ the aukardest staircase as was ever put before a gentleman's <vg037.jpg> legs. And he ~did~ go so far, sir, as to ask the Master, if it wouldn't be better to have a staircase as would go up of hisself, and take the gentlemen up with it, like one as they has at some public show in London - the Call-and-see-em, I think he said.”

”The Colosseum, probably,” suggested Mr. Green. ”And what did Dr.

Portman say to that, pray?”

”Why he said, sir, - leastways so Mr. Bouncer reported, - that it worn't by no means a bad idea, and that p'raps Mr. Bouncer'd find it done in six months' time, when he come back again from the country. For you see, sir, Mr. Bouncer had made hisself so pleasant, that he'd been and got the porter out o' bed, and corked his face dreadful; and then, sir, he'd been and got a Hinn-board from somewhere out of the town, and hung it on the Master's private door; so that when they went to early chapel in the morning, they read as how the Master was 'licensed to sell beer by retail,' and 'to be drunk