Holdsworth bowed again. He took out his pocketbook and removed a letter from the inner flap of the cover. ‘Her ladyship asked me to give you this, sir.’
Richardson thanked him with rather more warmth than was necessary. He slipped the letter into his pocket without opening it and turned back to Elinor. ‘And of course you are just returned from seeing Lady Anne, I collect. I trust her ladyship is in better health?’
‘She is no worse.’
‘I am rejoiced to hear that, at least. And, Mr Holdsworth, you must do me the honour of dining with me while you’re here. Where do you lodge?’
‘Why – here, of course,’ Elinor said, hoping to make it quite clear to both men where Holdsworth’s loyalties should lie.
‘Then Mr Holdsworth is indeed fortunate.’ Richardson turned again to Holdsworth. ‘The college is a perfect desert of masculinity. But the Master’s Lodge,’ – he bowed to Elinor – ‘thanks to this charming lady, is become an oasis of femininity. Still, since you are come to look over the library, I hope I may be of service to you. You, too, are a scholar?’
‘Not I, sir,’ Holdsworth said. ‘I have been a printer and a bookseller.’
‘Then I shall be particularly interested to hear your views on our collection,’ Richardson replied smoothly. ‘I have only recently taken over the direction of the library. It has been sadly neglected for at least a generation. All in all, our books are not as I should wish them to be.’ He smiled again at Holdsworth. ‘You may depend upon it, sir, I shall examine you very thoroughly on the subject.’
Elinor asked if they would take tea. Mr Richardson declined, saying that he had promised to look over some lecture notes for a colleague before supper, and took his leave, apologizing again for disturbing them. At the door he turned, raised himself slightly on the balls of his feet, and bowed again.
‘Well, sir,’ she said to Holdsworth when they were alone. ‘And what did you think of Mr Richardson?’
‘I cannot imagine it much signifies one way or the other.’
‘He came here only to look you over.’
‘I thought he looked in to see Dr Carbury.’
‘That was a mere façon de parler,’ Elinor said. ‘Mr Richardson knew that he would see Dr Carbury later this evening, and I am sure he already knew that the Doctor was not in college. Mr Richardson knows everything about Jerusalem. Or almost everything. He will have known of your arrival. Hence his curiosity to see you.’
‘Then I hope he was satisfied with what he saw.’
Elinor said softly, ‘You must be on your guard with him, sir.’
‘He is Mr Oldershaw’s tutor, I understand?’
‘Oh yes – and he made a particular pet of the boy as he was Lady Anne’s son. But I regret to say that he and her ladyship do not always agree.’
‘I do not understand all this,’ Holdsworth said abruptly.
‘Understand what?’
‘This place. This talk of masters and tutors and fellows.’
‘That is because Jerusalem is a world within a world. So is any college in this University, or perhaps at any University. A college is a world with its own laws and customs.’
‘It might be a world of savages for aught I know.’
Elinor repressed a most unladylike desire to laugh, converting the bubble of mirth into a cough. ‘I was situated as you are when I first came here. Worse, indeed, for I am a woman, since a college is a place exclusively composed of men. I might have made landfall on some undiscovered island on the far side of the world, but for the fortunate circumstance that the inhabitants speak English.’
He looked surprised. And then he smiled. ‘Suppose, madam, that I too have made landfall on this island. Suppose I am a shipwrecked sailor, another Crusoe. But I have been fortunate enough to come across you on the strand the waves have cast me upon; and you are kind enough to enlighten me as to the place where we find ourselves.’
Holdsworth’s smile took her by surprise after his surly, almost boorish behaviour earlier. ‘First, sir, you must consider that Jerusalem is a species of miniature country. It is governed by a handful of gentlemen, who are obliged to follow, at least in theory, a regimen laid down for them by the college’s Founder, and enshrined for perpetuity in the statutes. Jerusalem was founded by one of Lady Anne’s ancestors in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. We attach much importance to our Founder’s kin at Jerusalem: for not only do they have some influence upon how we may interpret our statutes, they also have the power to appoint two of our fellows, and they have been the source of many benefactions. So you see that -’
A loud, low voice was speaking indistinctly on the stairs. Footsteps were approaching, dragging and heavy. A moment later, Susan flung open the door and a large, elderly man built like a barrel advanced into the room.
‘Dr Carbury!’ Elinor cried. ‘How – how delightful. I did not dare expect you so early.’
‘Your servant, madam.’ The voice was like the man: full, slow, deep and a trifle unsteady. ‘I tore myself away as soon as I could. I did not wish to delay the pleasure of welcoming our visitor.’
It was nine o’clock before they sat down to supper. The room was lit by candles on tables and in wall sconces, creating uneven and shifting pools of light among the gathering shadows. The portraits of dead masters on the walls were granted a dim and spurious life by the flickering flames that illuminated them. The balcony above the screens at the far end of the room was almost invisible.
The high table was on a dais at the eastern end, flanked by two great bay windows. There were some ten or twelve men scattered round the great slab of oak, with Dr Carbury, as of right, in the middle. Beneath the dais, several long tables stood in the body of the hall. Only one of these was occupied. It was at the further end, nearest the buttery and the kitchens. Here sat a dozen or so young men. They were eating rapidly as though their very lives depended on the speed with which they consumed their food.
‘I had expected to see more undergraduates, sir,’ Holdsworth said to Dr Carbury, who was fighting his way through a large slice of mutton pie.
‘Eh? Nowadays the majority take supper in their own rooms or in those of their friends. The ones you see below are of the poorer sort – sizars in the main, that is to say, undergraduates who are supported by the foundation.’
‘It is a fine thing for them to have such a chance of advancement.’
‘Very true. But I wish they were not such a hangdog, out-at-elbows crew.’
Mr Richardson, who was sitting opposite, leaned towards them. ‘Why, as to that, Dr Carbury, one might turn the argument upon its head. If you look around this table, at least half or more of the men you see were once sizars, here or at another college. Most of our other undergraduates do not trouble themselves overmuch with work. Many do not take a degree. So the college needs its sizars as much as they need us. Most of our scholars will come from their ranks.’
‘Well, sir, it is natural that you of all people should -’
At this point there was a burst of drunken laughter in the court beyond the big window on Holdsworth’s left. Dr Carbury broke off and looked sharply in the direction of the sound.
‘Ah,’ said Richardson blandly. ‘I believe I recognize the merry tones of Mr Archdale. At least our sizars are not noisy. You must allow that.’
Carbury picked a shred of meat from his teeth. ‘That young man grows rowdy.’
‘I am afraid so, Master. Dulce est desipere in loco.’
A tall young man sitting near the end of the table said with a gasp of half-suppressed amusement, ‘I believe he has been dining with Mr Whichcote, sir. I fancy that might explain it on this occasion.’