Sinister Street Compton Mackenzie (good novels to read in english .TXT) đ
- Author: Compton Mackenzie
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Michael found the evening a delightful end to his day. He was sufficiently tired by his nocturnal vigil to be able to accept the experience without any prickings of self-consciousness and doubt as to whether this Balliol club resented his intrusion. Hazlewoodâs room was the most personal that so far he had seen in Oxford. It shadowed forth for Michael possibilities that in the sporting atmosphere of St. Maryâs he had begun to forget. He would not have liked Tommy Grainger or Lonsdale to have rooms like this one of Hazlewoodâs, nor would he have exchanged the society of Grainger and Lonsdale for any other society in Oxford; but he was glad to think that Hazlewood and his rooms existed. He lay back in a deep armchair watching the candlelight flicker over the tapestries, and the shadows of the listeners in giant size upon their martial and courtly populations. He heard in half-a-dream the level voice of Hazlewood enunciating his theories in graceful singing sentences, and the occasional fizz of a replenished glass. The tobacco smoke grew thicker and thicker, curling in spirals about the emaciated loveliness of an ivory saint. The paper was over: and before the discussion was started somebody rose and drew back the dull green curtains sown with golden fleur-de-lys. Moonbeams came slanting in and with them the freshness of the May night: more richly blue gathered the tobacco smoke: more magical became the room, and more perfectly the decorative expression of all Oxford stood for. One by one the members of the Chandos Society rose up to comment on the paper, mocking and earnest, affected and sincere, always clever, sometimes humorous, sometimes truly wise with an apologetic wisdom that was the more delightful.
Michael came to the conclusion that he liked Balliol, that most unjustly had he heard its atmosphere stigmatized as priggish. He made up his mind to examine more closely at leisure this atmosphere, so that from it he might extract the quintessential spirit. Walking with Hazlewood to the lodge, he asked him if the men he had met in his room would stand as representatives of the college.
âYes, I should think so,â said Hazlewood. âWhy, are you making exhaustive researches into the social aspects of Oxford life? It takes an American to do that really well, you know.â
âBut what is the essential Balliol?â Michael demanded.
âWho could say so easily? Perhaps itâs the same sort of spirit, slightly filtered down through modern conditions, as you found in Elizabethan England.â
Michael asked for a little more elaboration.
âWell, take a man connected with the legislative class, directly by birth and indirectly by opportunities, give him at least enough taste not to be ashamed of poetry, give him also enough energy not to be ashamed of football or cricket, and add a profound satisfaction with Oxford in general and Balliol in particular, and there you are.â
âWill that description serve for yourself?â Michael asked.
âFor me? Oh, great scott, no! Iâm utterly deficient in proconsular ambitions.â
They had reached the lodge by now, and Michael left his new friend after promising very soon to come to lunch and pursue further his acquaintance with Balliol.
When Michael got back to college, Avery was hard at work with Wedderburn drawing up the preliminary circular of The Oxford Looking-Glass. Both the promoters insisted that Michael should listen to their announcement before he told them anything about himself or his day.
âThe Oxford Looking-Glass,â Avery began, âis intended to reflect contemporary undergraduate thought.â
âI prefer âwill reflect,âââ Wedderburn interrupted, in bass accents of positive opinion.
âI donât think it very much matters,â said Michael, âas long as you donât think that âcontemporary undergraduate thoughtâ is too pretentious. The question is whether you can see a ghost in a mirror, for a spectral appearance is just about as near as undergraduate thought ever reaches toward reality.â
Neither Avery nor Wedderburn condescended to reply to his criticism, and the chief promoter went on:
âSome of the subjects which The Oxford Looking-Glass will reflect will be Literature, Politics, Painting, Music, and the Drama.â
âI think thatâs a rotten sentence,â Michael interrupted.
âWell, of course, it will be polished,â Avery irritably explained. âWhat Wedders and I have been trying to do all the evening is to say as simply and directly as possible what we are aiming at.â
âAh!â Michael agreed, smiling. âNow Iâm beginning to understand.â
âIt may be assumed,â Avery went on, âthat the opinion of those who are âknocking at the doorâ (in inverted commas)â ââ
âI shouldnât think anybody would ever open to people standing outside a door in inverted commas,â Michael observed.
âLook here, Michael,â Avery and Wedderburn protested simultaneously, âwill you shut up, or you wonât be allowed to contribute.â
âHavenât you ever heard of the younger generation knocking at the door in Ibsen?â fretfully demanded Maurice. âThat the opinion of those who are knocking at the door,â he continued defiantly, âis not unworthy of an audience.â
âBut if theyâre knocking at a door,â Michael objected, âthey canât be reflected in a mirror; unless itâs a glass door, and if itâs a glass door, they oughtnât to be knocking on it very hard. And if they donât knock hard, there isnât much pointâ ââ
âThe Editor in chief,â pursued Maurice, undaunted by Michaelâs attempt to reduce to absurdity the claims of The Oxford Looking-Glass, âwill be M. Avery (St. Maryâs), with whom will be associated C. St. C. Wedderburn (St. Maryâs), C. M. S. Fane (St. Maryâs), V. L. A. Townsend (B.N.C.). I havenât asked him yet, as a matter of fact, but heâs sure to join because heâs very keen on Ibsen. W. Mowbray (Univ.). Bill Mowbrayâs very bucked at the scheme. Heâs just resigned from the Russell and joined the Canning. They say at the Union that a lot of the principal speakers are going to follow Chamberlainâs lead for Protection. N. R. Stewart (Trinity). Nigel Stewart is most tremendously keen, and rather a good man to have, as heâs had two poems taken by The Saturday Review already.
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