Taffy had never heard her speak at all like this.
"But you are going over to Carwithiel, and George is famous company."
"I am going over to Carwithiel because I hate Tredinnis. I hate every stone of it, and will sell the place as soon as ever I come of age. And George is the best fellow in the world. Some day I shall marry him (Oh, it's all arranged!) and we shall live at Carwithiel and be quite happy; for I like him, and he likes people to be happy. And we shall talk of you. Being out of the world ourselves, we shall talk of you, and the great things you are going to do, and the great things you are doing. We shall say to each other, 'It's all very well for the world to be proud of him, but we have the best right; for we grew up with him and know the stories he used to tell us, and when the time came for his going, it was we who waved from the door'——"
"Honoria——"
"But there is one thing you haven't told; and you shall now, if you care to—about your examination and what you did at Oxford."
So he sat down beside her on a sand-hill and told her; about the long low-ceiled room in the quadrangle of the Bodleian, the old marbles which lined the walls, the examiner at the blue-baize table, and the little deal tables (all scribbled over with names and dates and verses and ribald remarks) at which the candidates wrote; also of the viva voce examination in the ante-chamber of the Convocation House. He told it all as if it were the great event which he honestly felt it to be.
"And the others," said she: "those who were writing around you, and the examiner—how did you feel toward them?"
Taffy stared at her. "I don't know that I thought much about them?"
"Didn't you feel as if it was a battle, and you wanted to beat them all?"
He broke out laughing. "Why the examiner was an old man, as dry as a stick! And the others—I hardly remember what they were like—except one, a white-headed boy with a pimply face. I couldn't help noticing him, because, whenever I looked up, there he was at the next table, staring at me and chewing a quill."