"And you didn't feel like going on the 'Cher' this morning?"
"I have had two pros bowling to me," he answered, "I was bowled about a dozen times. Besides I wasn't asked to go on the 'Cher.'"
"Nina and Mrs. Faulkner said all sorts of things about me last night?"
"Who told you so?"
"They did."
"Sometimes Nina's temper isn't any better than yours," he said. "What happened to you? How's Owen?"
"Owen is very bad," I answered, and while we had lunch I told him what I had been doing. "In a few hours I have made a fool of myself three times," I said, "I've promised to pay for Owen, and I have had rows with both Edwardes and Dennison. This college is going to blazes, and it is men like Edwardes, who is a great lump of ice, and Dennison, who just wants to be a blood in his own miserable little way, who will be responsible. Edwardes never cares what happens, and Dennison is collecting a set round him who can do nothing but wear waistcoats, eat and drink. You have all the luck in belonging to a college where men don't become bloods by drinking hard, and where everybody takes an interest in the place. St. Cuthbert's will never get a decent fresher to come to it if we don't do something to make it alive again."
Fred stretched himself and yawned, all the life seemed to have gone out of him in some way.
"You wouldn't like to belong to a college which has been something and is on the road to be nothing," I said.
"It takes a lot to ruin a college," he answered; "every one knows that St. Cuthbert's is a good enough place, and one man like Dennison won't make much difference."