“A good deal of the cock-tail about them, I should think. But I have not the honor of any acquaintance amongst them.”
“At any rate, they are undergraduates, are not they?”
“Yes.”
“And may take degrees, just like you or me?”
“They may have all the degrees to themselves, for anything I care. I wish they would let one pay a servitor for passing little-go for one. It would be deuced comfortable. I wonder it don't strike the dons, now; they might get clever beggars for servitors, and farm them, and so make loads of tin.”
“But, Drysdale, seriously, why should you talk like that? If they can take all the degrees we can, and are, in fact, just what we are, undergraduates, I can't see why they're not as likely to be gentlemen as we. It can surely make no difference, their being poor men?”
“It must make them devilish uncomfortable,” said the incorrigible payer of double fees, getting up to light his cigar.
“The name ought to carry respect here, at any rate. The Black Prince was an Oxford man, and he thought the noblest motto he could take was, 'Ich dien,' I serve.”
“If he were here now, he would change it for 'Je paye.'”
“I often wish you would tell me what you really and truly think, Drysdale.”