Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

28 An Inland Voyage.
this excellent young man sit beside us to dilate
on boats and boat-races ; and before he left, he
was kind enough to order our bed-room candles.
We endeavoured now and again to change the
subject ; but the diversion did not last a moment :
the Royal Nautical Sportsvian bridled, shied,
answered the question, and then breasted once
more into the swelling tide of his subject. I call
it his subject ; but I think it was he who was
subjected. The Aretlmsa, who holds all racing
as a creature of the devil, found himself in a
pitiful dilemma. He durst not own his ignor-
ance for the honour of Old England, and spoke
away about English clubs and English oarsmen
whose fame had never before come to his ears.
Several times, and, once above all, on the ques-
tion of sliding-seats, he was within an ace of ex-
posure. As for the Cigarette, who has rowed
races in the heat of his blood, but now disowns
these slips of his wanton youth, his case was still