[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 39]

your wine and sperrits here, sir - Mr. Smalls always did - you'll
find it a nice cool place, sir: or else here's this 'ere winder-seat;
you see, sir, it opens with a lid, 'andy for the purpose."

"If you act upon that suggestion, Verdant," remarked Mr. Green aside
to his son, "I trust that a lock will be added."

There was not a superfluity of furniture in the room; and Mr. Smalls
having conveyed away the luxurious part of it, that which was left
had more of the useful than the ornamental character; but as Mr.
Verdant Green was no Sybarite, this point was but of
little consequence. The window looked with a sunny aspect down upon
the quad, and over the opposite buildings were seen the spires of
churches, the dome of the Radcliffe, and the gables, pinnacles, and
turrets of other colleges. This was pleasant enough: pleasanter than
the stale odours of the Virginian weed that rose from the faded green
window-curtains, and from the old Kidderminster carpet that had been
charred and burnt into holes with the fag-ends of cigars.

"Well, Verdant," said Mr. Green, when they had completed their
inspection, "the rooms are not so very bad, and I think you may be
able to make yourself comfortable in them. But I wish they were not
so high up. I don't see how you can escape if a fire was to break
out, and I am afraid collegians must be very careless on these
points. Indeed, your mother made me promise that I would speak to
Dr. Portman about it, and ask