Volume Ii Part 1 (1/2)
Sinister Street.
vol. 2.
by Compton Mackenzie.
BOOK ONE
DREAMING SPIRES
Bright memories of young poetic pleasure In free companions.h.i.+p, the loving stress Of all life-beauty, lull'd in studious leisure, When every Muse was jocund with excess Of fine delight and tremulous happiness; The breath of an indolent unbridled June, When delicate thought fell from the dreamy moon: But now strange care, sorrow, and grief oppress.
ROBERT BRIDGES.
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST DAY
Michael felt glad to think he would start the adventure of Oxford from Paddington. The simplicity of that railway station might faintly mitigate alarms which no amount of previous deliberation could entirely disperse. He remembered how once he had lightly seen off a Cambridge friend from Liverpool Street and, looking back at the suburban tumult of the Great Eastern Railway, he was grateful for the simplicity of Paddington.
Michael had been careful that all his heavy luggage should be sent in advance; and he had shown himself gravely exacting toward Alan in this matter of luggage, writing several times to remind him of his promise not to appear on the platform with more than a portmanteau of moderate size and a normal kit-bag. Michael hoped this precaution would prevent at any rate the porters from commenting upon the freshness of him and his friend.
”Oxford train?” inquired a porter, as the hansom pulled up. Michael nodded, and made up his mind to show his esteem when he tipped this promethean.
”Third cla.s.s?” the porter went on. Michael mentally doubled the tip, for he had neglected to a.s.sure himself beforehand about the etiquette of cla.s.s, and nothing could have suited so well his self-consciousness as this information casually yielded.
”Let me see, you didn't have any golf-clubs, did you, sir?” asked the porter.
Michael shook his head regretfully, for as he looked hurriedly up and down the platform in search of Alan, he perceived golf-clubs everywhere, and when at last he saw him, actually even he had a golf-bag slung over his shoulder.
”I never knew you played golf,” said Michael indignantly.
”I don't. These are the governor's. He's given up playing,” Alan explained.
”Are you going to play?” Michael pursued. He was feeling rather envious of the appearance of these veteran implements.
”I may have a shot,” Alan admitted.
”You might have told me you were going to bring them,” Michael grumbled.
”My dear old a.s.s, I never knew I was, until the governor w.a.n.ged them into my lap just as I was starting.”
Michael turned aside and bought a number of papers, far too many for the short journey. Indeed, all the way they lay on the rack unregarded, while the train crossed and recrossed the silver Thames. At first he was often conscious of the other undergraduates in the compartment, who seemed to be eying him with a puzzled contempt; but very soon, when he perceived that this manner of looking at one's neighbor was general, he became reconciled to the att.i.tude and ascribed it to a habit of mind rather than to the expression of any individual distaste. Then suddenly, as Michael was gazing out of the window, the pearly sky broke into spires and pinnacles and domes and towers. He caught his breath for one bewitched moment, before he busied himself with the luggage on the rack.
On the platform Michael and Alan decided to part company, as neither of them felt sure enough whether St. Mary's or Christ Church were nearer to the station to risk a joint hansom.
”Shall I come and see you this afternoon?” Michael rashly offered.
”Oh, rather,” Alan agreed, and they turned away from one another to secure their cabs.