Guy Livingstone | Page 7

to the full as glorious as that of some other friends of ours, who crawl away from the battle-ground of the Viveurs to die, or to linger on helpless hypochondriacs.
If I have spoken depreciatingly or unfairly of the mass of my college coevals (and it may well be so), I do full justice, in thought at least, to some brilliant exceptions. I founded friendships there which, I trust, will outlive me.
I do not forget Warrenne, too good for the men he lived with, a David in our camp of Kedar--always going on straight in the path he thought right--though ever and anon his hot Irish blood would chafe fiercely under the curb self-imposed--and laboring incessantly, with all gentleness, to induce others to follow; a Launcelot in his devotion to womankind; a Galahad in purity of thought and purpose. I have never known a man of the world so single-hearted, or a saint with so much savoir vivre.
I see before me now Lovell, with his frank look and cheery laugh, the model of a stalwart English squirehood; and Petre, equal to either fortune; in reverse or success calm and impassible as Athos the mousquetaire; regarding money simply as a circulating medium, with the profoundest contempt for its actual value--se ruinant en prince. He edified us greatly, on one occasion, by meeting his justly offended father with a stern politeness, declining to hold any communication with him by word or letter till he (the sire) "could express himself in a more Christian spirit."
Then there was Barlowe, the pearl of gentlemen riders, the very apple of Charles Symond's eye; unspoiled by a hundred triumphs, and never degenerating into the professional, though I believe his idea of earthly felicity was,
A match for ��50, 10 st. 7 lb. each. Owners up. Over 4 miles of a fair hunting country.
I see him, too, with his pleasant face, round, rosy, and beardless as a child-cherub of Rubens, tempting pale men with splitting heads to throw boots at him in the bitterness of their envy as he entered their rooms on the morning after a heavy drink, his eyes so clear and guileless that you would never guess how sharp they could be at times when a dangerous horse was coming up on his quarter. A strange compound his character was of cool calculation and sentimental simplicity. The most astute of trainers never got the better of him in making a match; and I am sure, to this day, he believes in ----'s poetry, and in the immutability of feminine affection.
How agreeable he was about the small hours, chirping over his grog; alternating between reminiscences of "My tutor's daughter" and recitals of choice morsels in verse and prose; misquoting, to the utter annihilation of rhythm and sense, but all with perfect gravity, good faith, and satisfaction!
_Nec te, memorande, relinquam_--true Tom Lynton! not clever, not even high-bred, but loved by every one for the honestest and kindest heart that ever was the kernel of a rough rind.
Do we not remember that supper where the Fathers of England were being discussed? Every one, drawn on by the current, had a stone to throw at his relieving officer, the complaint, of course, being a general tightness in the supplies. At last, Tom, who, though his own sire was an austere man, could not bear to hear the absent run down, broke in, gravely remonstrating,
"Well, gentlemen," he said, "remember they're our _fellow-creatures_, at all events."
They drank "Lynton and the Governors" with a compound multiplication of cheers.
I might mention more; but a face rises just now before me which makes me close the muster-roll--the face of one who united in himself many, very many of the best qualities of the others; of one whom I shrink from naming here, lest it should seem that I do so lightly--a face that I saw six hours before its features became set forever.
CHAPTER IV.
_"D�� tot' anaschomen?, ho men ��lase dexion ?mon Iros, ho d' auchen' elassen hup' ouatos, ostea d' eis? Ethlasen; autika d' ��lthen ana stoma phoinion haima."_
Toward the end of my second year an event came off in which we were all much interested--a steeplechase in which both Universities were to take part. The stakes were worth winning--twenty sovs. entrance, h.f., and a hundred sovs. added; besides, the esprit de corps was strong, and men backed their opinions pretty freely. The venue was fixed at B----; the time, the beginning of the Easter vacation.
The old town was crowded like Vanity Fair. There was a railway in progress near, and the navvies and other "roughs" came flocking in by hundreds, so that the municipal authorities, justly apprehensive of a row, concentrated the cohorts of their police, and swore in no end of specials as a reserve.
The great event came off duly, a fair instance of