Hardie's beck and call? I never heard of such a thing. That youth _will_
make me hate him."

"Oh, I think I had better just go and see what it is about," replied
Edward: "I shall be back directly." And on this understanding he went off
with the men.

Half-an-hour passed; an hour; two hours, and he did not return. Mrs. Dodd
and Julia sat wondering what had become of him, and were looking all
around, and getting uneasy, when at last they did hear something about
him, but indirectly, and from an unexpected quarter. A tall young man in
a jersey and flannel trousers, and a little straw hat, with a purple
rosette, came away from the bustle to the more secluded part where they
sat, and made eagerly for the Thames as if he was a duck, and going in.
But at the brink line flung himself into a sitting posture, and dipped
his white handkerchief into the stream, then tied it viciously round his
brow, doubled himself up with his head in his hands, and rocked himself
hike an old woman--minus the patience, of course.

Mrs. Dodd and Julia, sitting but a few paces behind him, interchanged. a
look of intelligence. The young gentleman was a stranger; but they had
recognised a faithful old acquaintance at the bottom of his pantomime.
They discovered, too, that the afflicted one was a personage: for line
had not sat there long when quite a little band of men came after him.
Observing his semi-circularity and general condition, they hesitated a
moment; and then one of them remonstrated eagerly.: "For Heaven's sake
come back to the boat! There is a crowd of all the colleges come round
us; and they all say Oxford is being sold. We had a chance for the
four-oared race, and you are throwing it away."