"No, that's the worst of it," laughed Grigson; "so I shall be obliged to think about it some day, whether I like it or not."
"Ah! Just so!" said John; and then the friends separated.
John did think about it. He passed an almost sleepless night in troubled thought; and the next morning after chapel, drawing his friend Grigson aside, he proposed a walk round the Magdalen Water Walk.
"Very good, John, it will give us an appetite for breakfast."
"Grigson," said John, after they had gone round and round the walk, almost in silence, and they were returning into the High Street through the cloisters, "I am off by the Tally-ho to-day. Can I do anything for you at the Manor House!"
"The Manor House! Tally-ho! What is the meaning of this sudden freak, Tincroft?" his friend naturally enough asked.
"I don't wonder at your wondering. Look here, Tom, I have been thinking all night of what you told me yesterday, and though I know very well that I am a blockhead, and you know it too—"
"I know nothing of the sort. You are one of the best fellows I know. You have kept me out of a world of mischief here, and if you are not up to some things that some of us know too much of, you are none the worse for that."
"Well, blockhead or not, Grigson, I have made up my mind not to be a knave."
"Ho! Ho! Sets the wind in that quarter?" thought Tom, within himself. And then he said, rather sharply, "You don't mean to finish up by marrying that girl yourself after all, do you?"