The man laughed with perfect good-temper. Already he was two glasses ahead of Lorimer; but no outward sign betrayed the fact.
"I am willing to bet that they kept you more strict at Eton than the Doctor kept us."
Lorimer set down his glass and gave a knowing wink which, at another time, he would have been swift to condemn in his left-hand neighbor.
"They tried; but they couldn' do much about it. Besides, there was college, you know."
"We all have experienced university discipline," Dudley suggested. "It is swift and powerful, and nobody ever knows where it will hit next."
Lorimer appeared to be pondering the matter. Then he turned to Lloyd Avalons.
"D' you ever 'sperience university discipline?" he demanded, with grave anxiety.
Lloyd Avalons flushed angrily, and Thayer judged that it was time to interpose.
"University discipline is more a matter of theory than of fact," he said lightly. "If you want real discipline, you'd better go through a course of voice training. How much was my allowance, the last of the time in Berlin, Lorimer? My salamanders were mere tadpoles."
Lorimer caught at the familiar word.