A Woman of Culture, Chapter XII-XIV [pp. 771-801]

784 A WOMAN OF CULTU~E. [Mar.,
a short struggle with the tipsy students, to the symposiarch's
side.
"You are drinking too much," said Roseleigh. "The boys are
filling you purposely, and wish to lay you out along with themselves. I heard them plotting the thing."
"They are a little too late," laughed Juniper, with his eyes
fixed rather curiously on Quip. "You saved me in the nick of
time, for I would have gone on until the jug had been finished."
Mr. Quip paid no attention to his friend. He resumed the
conversation which seemed to have been interrupted by Juniper's
appearance. He was giving a detailed account of his adventures
in other climes than Canada, with a view to excite in Mr. Juni
per's breast a desire to excel them by the relation of his own. It
was a bait that took easily. The symposiarch's deeds of old were
brilliant in themselves and excellent in the telling, but they were
of a kind which might happen to aiiy Bohemian. There was no
mystery about them, nothing of the indefinable charm which
leaves the listener so many questions to be asked with no possibility of a satisfactory answer. In this respect Mr. Juniper had
the advantage. He was reputed a fine story-teller, and never lost
an occasion of adding to his laurels. His faculties were now
misty with unlimited punch, and he was nettled at a certain air
of conceit which the volatile Mr. Quip purposely displayed.
I know a tale worth twenty such as you have been telling,"
he said after Quip had finished.
The bird-like eyes snapped with delight.
"The old thing you always drag out on big occasions," said
he contemptuously. "It's like fire-crackers on the queen's birthday, and as old as Roseleigh's hat. Couldn't you vary it, Juniper, in some unexpected way? Bring the children to life; have
them discover the man that cheated them; let the girl fall in love
with him, marry him, and so keep the fortune in the family and
one man out of jail-couldn't you do that, Juniper?"
"Yes, I could and shall, if I choose," answered the other
sulkily.
"Then I command you to begin," said Quip, with the air'of
one who expected to laugh heartily for the next ten minutes.
Juniper was more nettled than ever.
"Let the boys gather round," he said; but Quip objected:
"I had no such audience, and they are too tipsy to listen."
The story, therefore, went on without the boys. Roseleigh
and one or two more sober fellows formed the group of listeners,
and displayed an attention as flattering to Mr. Juniper's vain soul