An American girl in London . ever saw, among the Dons on thebarges—my first Dons, too, but they differed very much; Icould not generalise about them—among their wives, whoseemed unaggressive, youngish ladies, as a rule, in rather subduedgowns; among the gay people down from Town, among thecollege men, incorrigibly uproarious; among that considerablebody of society that adds so little to the brilliance of such anoccasion but contributes so largely to its noise. And after itwas over a number of exuberant young men on the other sideplunged into the noble river Isis and crossed it with a few well-
An American girl in London . ever saw, among the Dons on thebarges—my first Dons, too, but they differed very much; Icould not generalise about them—among their wives, whoseemed unaggressive, youngish ladies, as a rule, in rather subduedgowns; among the gay people down from Town, among thecollege men, incorrigibly uproarious; among that considerablebody of society that adds so little to the brilliance of such anoccasion but contributes so largely to its noise. And after itwas over a number of exuberant young men on the other sideplunged into the noble river Isis and crossed it with a few well-placed strides, and possibly two strokes. None of them weredrowned. After that we had a joyous half-hour in the apartments, atExeter, of Mr. Bertie Corke, whose brown eyes had Petersvery twinkle in them, and who became established in our affec-tions at once upon that account. Mr. Corke was one ofthe Exeter Eight, and he looked reproachfully at us when weinadvertently stated that we had lingered to congratulate a genuine bishop. 254 AN AMERICAN GIRL IN LONDON Pembroke got a bump, you know, yesterday, I remarked,proud of the technicality. Yes, returned Mr. Bertie Corke, ruefulty, bumped us. This was an unfortunate beginning, but it did not mar oursubsequent relations with Miss Peter Corkes brother, whichwere of the pleasantest description. He told us on the waydown once more to the noble river Isis the names of all thosedelightful elderly stone images that had themselves put overthe college doors centuries ago, when they were built, and hegot almost as many interiors into half an hour as his sistercould. He explained to us, too, how, by the rules of the Uni-versity, he was not allowed to play marbles on the college steps,or to wear clothes of other than an obfusc hue, which wasexactly the kind of thing that Peter would tell you—audexpect you to remember. He informed us, too, that accordingto the pure usage of Oxonian English he was a Fresher, theman we had just
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