Before the charm
and sweetness of it, Oxford snobbishness went down. The Sauce,
against the earnest counsel of its own advertisement, was
forgotten; the pickles passed by. To escape the natural result of
his popularity would have needed a stronger will than young
Grindley possessed. For a time the true state of affairs was
hidden from the eye of Grindley senior. To "slack" it this term,
with the full determination of "swotting" it the next, is always
easy; the difficulty beginning only with the new term. Possibly
with luck young Grindley might have retrieved his position and
covered up the traces of his folly, but for an unfortunate
accident. Returning to college with some other choice spirits at
two o'clock in the morning, it occurred to young Grindley that
trouble might be saved all round by cutting out a pane of glass
with a diamond ring and entering his rooms, which were on the
ground-floor, by the window. That, in mistake for his own, he
should have selected the bedroom of the College Rector was a
misfortune that might have occurred to anyone who had commenced the
evening on champagne and finished it on whisky. Young Grindley,
having been warned already twice before, was "sent down." And
then, of course, the whole history of the three wasted years came
out.
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