THE NEWNHAM PARTY.

259

No sooner had Walford asked Cole if his victualling yard was fully equal to the occasion than he replied:

:

"A hundred gentlemen at Newnham, Sir! Nothing easier. Hock, claret, champagnethe best of all sorts, sir: only let me know your pleasure. But then, since it is intended for a Pass party, Mr. Walford, I suppose you will leave all that to me. The rent-roll of Richcourt-eh, Sir?—won't feel the difference.”

It was soon agreed that Davis's barge, with tables on deck and an awning, should be the order of the day. And when the day came, it seemed made for the occasion-the azure sky, the summer stillness-all conspired to show forth those beauties of the Isis and of Newnham which linger in the memory of every old Oxonian. The reeds bent gently to the stream; the lazy chub were drawing down the flies in the little circles their fat snouts had made. The powerful rush of Sandford Lasher, as usual, was audible far and near, guilty of the sudden death of more than one fine fellow, before its marble column spoke warnings from the fate of Gaisford and of Phillimore. As to the company, it was like a holiday flotilla-the barge carried a band of music to enliven the scene, which passed and repassed the College eight-oars, and numerous

skiffs-one skiff bore Norman, spectacles and all, rowed by Rickworth, who hung about the barge, to allow of Norman's well-known sallies and repartees. Many boats were there to see the fun-boats that bore men who, though not invited, were generally hailed by some one from the barge to stop and have a glass, before they went home on that sultry day. "You need not be particular, Mr. Walford," said Cole; "I have a pretty good store, besides a nine-gallon cask of claret, on board, in case of accidents.'

The end of all was, that Walford that day kept open house, and regaled all the boatsthose not a few-which, attracted by the fame of "Walford's spread," had come, because others came, to see the fun and join in the spirts and races, or the scrimmage afterwards.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A MATTER OF BUSINESS, OF BY NO MEANS AN UNCOMMON KIND.

NED WALFORD was by this time launched on a sea of debt and extravagance. Oxford tradesmen, like other tradesmen, know whom they trust. Like other tradesmen, neither better nor worse, they know that ready money, pulled sovereign by sovereign from the purse, checks the sanguine humour, clips the wings of fancy, and brings a kind of prudential chill all over a customer whereas, while choice and tempting articles are simply set aside as selected, with a polite bow, young gentlemen, as well as young ladies, feel shopping quite a charming after

noon's recreation.

Sydney Smith said, that so light did all pains and penalties in the distance appear to an offender, safe for the present, that he believed

you might find many a man who would take a five-pound note in possession to agree to the most agonising state of things twenty years after date. On the same principle-of the distance smoothing off sharp edges to the view-to Walford, as to many another thoughtless youth, ten guineas added to his former bill did not seem much more than ten shillings paid down in ready money.

We remember the case of more than one Oxford man, whose debts seemed to show that he had never paid a bill all the time he was at College. This was very like Walford's case.

Then, how did his allowance go?" The whole allowance went in turnpikes, odd shillings, travelling, inns, and dinners out of Oxford-not to mention bets and gambling debts, which are called, by an anomalous courtesy, "debts of honour."

It is not every one who considers that dealing upon credit is literally having substance for shadow something for nothing while the credit lasts: and, since all going out and nothing coming in is a drain on a tradesman's resources that cannot go on for ever, several of the tradesmen honoured with Ned Walford's liberal orders began, over a social glass of wine, to form themselves into a little committee of ways and means.

A COMMITTEE OF WAYS AND MEANS. 263

The sum and substance of their consultations was to this effect:

That it was a thousand pities to run the slightest risk of checking the golden stream that must one day flow from such a customer as Mr. Walford of King's-his intentions were so good, his estates so ample, and the certainty of being paid to the uttermost farthing beyond all question.

"He stands heavy charges," interposed one cynical gentleman to Mr. Fearn, the tailor, with a sly allusion to the ingenuity of his small accounts" linings, facings, patent buttonholes, spring bands-in short, as many extras as have ever been invented-eh, my good friend ?"

"We all know credit must be paid for: but, joking apart, no charges at all like respectable business can pay for four years' credit."

"True, true!" said Fripp the horse-dealer : "and the question is, whether a man can stand the strain all one way for four long years, for the advantage of a running account of large orders and high prices, booked at the time present."

"I am sorry to say so," said a grey-headed old picture-seller; "but this kind of business, however profitable, has been carried far enough.