Part 10 (1/2)
”Just look at these cards,” he said to Julian one day; ”there is not one of them which hasn't an invitation scribbled on it. These engagements really leave one no time for work. What a bore it is! How do you manage to escape them?”
”Well--first, I haven't such a large acquaintance as you; that makes a great deal of difference. But, besides, I make a point of leaving breakfast parties at ten, and wines at chapel-time--so that I really don't find them any serious hindrance. No hindrance, I mean, in comparison with the delight and profit of the society itself.”
”I wish I could make the same resolution,” said Kennedy; ”but the fact is, I find company so thoroughly amusing, that I'm always tempted to stay.”
”But why not decline sometimes?”
”I don't know--it looks uncivil. Here, which of these shall I cut?” he said, tossing three or four notes and cards to Julian.
”This for one,” said Julian, as he read the first:--
”Dear Kennedy--Come to supper and cards at ten. Bruce wants to be introduced to you. Yours,
”'C Brogten.'”
”Yes, I think I shall. I don't like that fellow Brogten, who is always thrusting himself in my way,” said Kennedy. ”Heigh ho!” and Kennedy leant his head on his arm, and fell into a reverie, thinking that after all his three years at college might be over almost before he was aware of how much time he lost.
”I hope you don't play cards much,” said Julian.
”Why? I hear Hazlet has been denouncing them in hall with unctuous fervour, and I do think it was that which led me to join in a game which was instantly proposed by some of the men who sat near.”
”I don't say that there's anything diabolical,” said Julian, smiling, ”in paint and pasteboard, or that I should have the least objection to play them myself if I wanted amus.e.m.e.nt, but I think them--except very occasionally, and in moderation--a waste of time; and if you play for money I don't think it does you any good.”
”Well, I've never played for money yet. By the bye, do you know Bruce?
He has the character and manner of a very gentlemanly fellow.”
”Yes, I know him,” said Julian, who made a point of holding his tongue about a man when he had nothing favourable to say.
”Oh, ay, I forgot; of course; he's a Hartonian. But didn't you think him gentlemanly?”
”He has an easy manner, and is accustomed to good society, which is usually all that is intended by the word,” said Julian.
”I think I must go just this one evening. I like to see a variety of men; one learns something from it.”
Kennedy went. The supper took place in Brogten's rooms, and the party then adjourned to Bruce's, where they immediately began a game at whist for half-a-crown points, and then ”unlimited loo.” Kennedy was induced to play ”just to see what it was like.” As the game proceeded he became more and more excited; the others were accustomed to the thing, and concealed their eagerness; but Kennedy, who was younger and more inexperienced than any of them, threw himself into the game, and drank heedlessly of the wine that freely circulated. Surely if guardian spirits attend the footsteps of youth, one angel must have wept that evening ”tears such as angels weep” to see him with his flushed face and sparkling eyes, eagerly seizing the sums he won, or, with clenched hand and contracted brow, anxiously awaiting the result of some adverse turn in the chances of the game. I remember once to have accidentally entered a scene like this in going to borrow something from a neighbour's room; and I shall never forget the almost tiger-like eagerness and haggard anxiety depicted on the countenances of the men who were playing for sums far too extravagant for an undergraduate's purse.
How Kennedy got home he never knew, but next morning he awoke headachy and feverish, and the first thing he saw on his table was a slip of paper on which was written, ”Kennedy _admonished_ by the senior Dean for being out after twelve o'clock.” The notice annoyed and ashamed him.
He lay in bed till late, was absent from lecture, and got up to an unrelished breakfast, at which he was disturbed by the entrance of Bruce, to congratulate him on his winnings of the evening before.
While Bruce was talking to him, Lillyston also strolled in on his way from lecture to ask what had kept Kennedy away. He was surprised to see the pale and weary look on his face, and catching sight of Bruce seated in the armchair by the fire, he merely made some commonplace remarks and left the room. But he met Julian in the court, and told him that Kennedy didn't seem to be well.
”I'm not surprised,” said Julian; ”he supped with Brogten, and then went to play cards with Bruce, and I hear that Bruce's card parties are not very steady proceedings.”
”Can't we manage to keep him out of that set, Julian? It will be the ruin of his reading.”
”Ay, and worse, Hugh. But what can one say? It will hardly do to read homilies to one's fellow undergraduates.”
”You might at least give him a hint.”