The Babe, B.A. : being the uneventful history of a young gentleman at Cambridge University

by E. F. Benson

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

[ST. JOHN’S CHAPEL, FROM THE BACKS]	[Frontispiece.]
[TRINITY BRIDGE, FROM THE BACKS]	[ Facing p. 76]
[KINGS COLLEGE, SCREEN AND GATEWAY]	[ ” p. 176]
[KING’S PARADE AND CAIUS COLLEGE ]	[ ” p. 212]
[THE BACKS ]	[ ” p. 111]
[CLARE COLLEGE AND BRIDGE]	[ ” p. 246]

THE BABE, B.A.

I.—To Introduce.

The time has come, the showman said,
To look at many things,
At Deans and tea and men and Babes
At Cambridge and at King’s.
Light-blue Lyrics.

“And I maintain,” said Reggie, flourishing the Britannia-metal teapot (in order, it is supposed, to lend a spurious emphasis to the banalité of his sentiment), “that it’s better to have played and lost than never—”

The teapot—one of those in which the handle is invariably the hottest part—had just been filled up with boiling water, and a clear and fervid amber stream flew bounteously out of its spout on to the bare knees of one of those who had played and lost. Thereupon a confused noise arose, and Reggie’s sentence has never been finished.