Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

44 RAVENSAOE.
young man who was standing in the middle of the room and
-scratching his head.
He was a stout-built fellow, not particularly handsome, but with
a very pleasing face. His hair was very dark brown, short, and
curling; his forehead was broad and open, and below it were two
uncommonly pleasant-looking dark gray eyes. His face was rather
marked, his nose very slightly aquiline, and plenty of it, his mouth
large and good-humored, which, when opened to laugh, as it very
frequently was, showed a splendid set of white teeth, which were
well contrasted with a fine healthy brown and red complexion.
Altogether a very pleasant young fellow to look on, and looking
none the worse just now, for an expression of droll perplexity,
not unmixed with a certain amount of terror, which he had on his
face.
It was Charles Ravenshoe.
He stood in his shirt and- trousers only, in the midst of a scene
of desolation so awful, that I, who have had to describe some of
the most terrible scenes and circumstances conceivable, pause,
before attempting to give any idea of it in black and white. Every movable article in the room - furniture, crockery, fender, fireirons - lay in one vast heap of broken confusion in the corner of
the room. Not a pane of glass rerhained in the windows; the
bedroom door was broken down; and the door which opened into
the corridor was minus the two upper panels. Well might
Charles Ravenshoe stand there and scratch his head.
"By George," he said at last, soliloquizing, "how deuced lucky
it is that I never get drunk. If I had been screwed last night,
those fellows would have burnt the college down. What a devil
that Welter is when he gets drink into him; and Marlow is not
much better. The fellows were mad with fighting, too. I wish
they had n't come here and made hay afterwards. There'11 be
an awful row about this. It's all up, I am afraid. It's impossible to say, though."
At this moment, a man appeared in the passage, and, looking
in through the broken door, as if from a witness-box, announced,
"The dean wishes to see you at once, sir." And exit.
Charles replied by using an expression then just coming into
use among our youth, "All serene!" dressed himself by putting
on a pilot coat, a pair of boots, and a cap and gown, and with a
sigh descended into the quadrangle.
There were a good many men about, gathered in groups. The
same subject was in everybody's mouth. There had been, the
night before, without warning or apparent cause, the most frightful disturbance which, in the opinion of the porter, had graced the
college for fifty years. It had begun suddenly at half-past twelve,
and had been continued till three. The dons had been afraid to