“My dear fellow I am telling you what I do really think. Whatever the Black Prince might be pleased to observe if he were here, I stick to my motto. I tell you the thing to be able to do here at Oxford is—to pay.”
“I don't believe it.”
“I knew you wouldn't.”
“I don't believe you do either.”
“I do, though. But what makes you so curious about servitors?”
“Why, I made friends with Hardy, one of our servitors. He is such a fine fellow!”
I am sorry to relate that it cost Tom an effort to say this to Drysdale, but he despised himself that it was so.
“You should have told me so, before you began to pump me,” said Drysdale. “However, I partly suspected something of the sort. You've a good bit of a Quixote in you. But really, Brown,” he added, seeing Tom redden and look angry, “I'm sorry if what I said pained you. I daresay this friend of yours is a gentleman, and all you say.”
“He is more of a gentleman by a long way than most of the—”
“Gentlemen commoners, you were going to say. Don't crane at such a small fence on my account. I will put it in another way for you. He can't be a greater snob than many of them.”