escape, and retired to a pupil-room, where the bullying of a tutor,
because he had no derivations, exceeded in all probability the bullying of
his master, had he contrived in his passage from the Christopher to have
upset the goose or dropped the sausages.

In their merry meal, the Reform Bill was forgotten. Their thoughts were
soon concentrated in their little world, though it must be owned that
visions of palaces and beautiful ladies did occasionally flit over the
brain of one of the company. But for him especially there was much of
interest and novelty. So much had happened in his absence! There was a
week's arrears for him of Eton annals. They were recounted in so fresh a
spirit, and in such vivid colours, that Coningsby lost nothing by his
London visit. All the bold feats that had been done, and all the bright
things that had been said; all the triumphs, and all the failures, and all
the scrapes; how popular one master had made himself, and how ridiculous
another; all was detailed with a liveliness, a candour, and a picturesque
ingenuousness, which would have made the fortune of a Herodotus or a
Froissart.

'I'll tell you what,' said Buckhurst, 'I move that after twelve we five go
up to Maidenhead.'

'Agreed; agreed!'




CHAPTER IX.