212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 171
was in nowise disconcerted by the coolness of his reception. He
drank his wine very freely; addressed himself to his neighbours
affably : and called out a loud " Hear, hear !" to Twysden, when
that gentleman announced his intention of making a night of it.
As Mr. Hunt warmed with wine he spoke to the table. He talked
a great deal about the Ringwood family, had been very intimate at
Wingate, in old days, as he told Mr. Twysden, and an intimate
friend of poor Cinqbars, Lord Ringwood's only son. Now, the
memory of the late Lord Cinqbars was not an agreeable recollection
to the relative of the house of Ringwood. He was in life a
dissipated and disreputable young lord. His name was seldom
mentioned in his family ; never by his father, with whom he had
had many quarrels.
"You know I introduced Cinqbars to your father, Philip?"
calls out the dingy clergyman.
" I have heard you mention the fact," says Philip.
"They met at a wine in my rooms in Corpus. Brummell
Firmin we used to call your father in those days. He was the
greatest buck in the university—always a dressy man, kept hunters,
gave the best dinners in Cambridge. We were a wild set. There
was Cinqbars, Brand Firmin, Beryl, Toplady, about a dozen of us,
almost all noblemen or fellow-commoners—fellows who all kept
their horses and had their private servants."
This speech was addressed to the company, who yet did not
seem much edified by the college recollections of the dingy elderly
man.
"Almost all Trinity men, sir! We dined with each other
week about. Many of them had their tandems. Desperate fellow
across country your father was. And—but we won't tell tales out
of school, hey !"
"No; please don't, sir," said Philip, clenching his fists, and
biting his lips. The shabby ill-bred swaggering man was eating
Philip's salt ; Phil's lordly ideas of hospitality did not allow him
to quarrel with the guest under his tent.
" When he went out in medicine, we were all of us astonished.
Why, sir, Brand Firmin, at one time, was the greatest swell in the
university," continued Mr. Hunt, " and such a plucky fellow ! So
was poor Cinqbars, though he had no stamina. He, I, and Firmin,
fought for twenty minutes before Caius Gate with about twenty
bargemen, and you should have seen your father hit out ! I was
a handy one in those days, too, with my fingers. We learned the
noble art of self-defence in my time, young gentlemen ! We used
to have Glover, the boxer, down from London, who gave us lessons.
Cinqbars was a pretty sparrer—but no stamina. Brandy killed