Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

48 1RAVENSHOE.
THE MASTER believed Mr. Ravenshoe would hardly deny
having let off a rocket on the grass-plat.
Charles was ill advised enough to say that he did it to keep
the fellows quiet; but the excuse fell dead, and there was a slight
pause. After which,
THE DEAN rose, with his hands in his pockets, and remarked
that this sort of thing was all mighty fine, you know; but they
were n't going to stand it, and the sooner this was understood the
better. He, for one, as long as he remained dean of that college,
was not going to have a parcel of drunken young idiots making a
row under his windows at all hours iq the morning. He should
have come out himself last night, but that he was afraid, positively afraid, of personal violence; and the odds'were too heavy
against him. He, for one, did not want more words about it. He
allowed the fact of Mr. Ravenshoe being perfectly sober, though
whether that could be pleaded in extenuation was very doubtful.
(Did you speak, Mr. Bursar? No. I beg pardon, I thought you
did.) He proposed that Mr. Ravenshoe should be rusticated for
a year, and that the Dean of Christchurch should be informed
that Lord Welter was one of the most active of the rioters. That
promising young nobleman had done them the honor to create a
disturbance in the college on a previous occasion, when he was,
as last night4 the guest of Mr. Ravenshoe.
Charles said that Lord Welter had been rusticated for a year.
THE DEAN was excessively glad to hear it, and hoped that he
would stay at home and give his family the benefit of his high
spirits. As there were five other gentlemen to come before them,
he would suggest that they should come to a determination.
THE BURSAR thought that Mr. Ravenshoe's plea of sobriety
should be taken in extenuation. Mr. Ravenshoe had never been
previously accused of having resorted to stimulants. He thought
it should be taken in extenuation.
THE DEAN was sorry to be of a diametrically opposite opinion.
No one else taking up the cudgels for poor Charles, the Master
said he was afraid he must rusticate him.
Charles said he hoped they would n't.
THE DEAN gave a short laugh, and said that if that was all he
had to say he might as well have held his tongue. And then the
Master pronounced sentence of rustication for a year, and Charles,
having bowed, withdrew.