"It is so typical of Oxford to start its new year in the autumn." "I feel positively one hundred years old." "I was given a talking to by Monsignor Bell this afternoon, my tutor yesterday and the Junior Dean, and now I've got to face Mr Samgrass of All Souls." "That will make the fourth in two days." "Who's Mr Samgrass of All Souls?" "Just someone of Mummy's." "They all say that I made such a bad start last year that I've been noticed and that if I do not mend my ways" "I shall have to be sent down." "Oh, Charles, what's happened to us since last term?" "I feel so old." "I feel positively middle-aged, which is infinitely worse." "Well, I'm glad we had this little talk." "Your mother will be so pleased." "Would you care for a glass of sherry?" "I think I shall indulge in one myself." "Thank you." "Did your mother tell you that I am doing a little work for her?" "You know it was she who felt so keenly that we should meet." "She did tell you, didn't she?" "She may have done." "I really can't remember." "Well, I must go." "She has entrusted me with the compilation of a memorial work on her brother Ned." "I say work, but, of course, it gives me immense pleasure." "And what a delight to work at Brideshead, quite my favorite house in England." "I'm glad you like it." "I have an essay to write." "Yes, of course." "Well, remember what I've said." "I am sure we shall enjoy our exploration together and you know that any success in the fields of academe would bring great pleasure to your mother." "Yes, thank you." "Goodbye." "Goodbye, Sebastian." "Mr Samgrass and his little talks were to play an increasingly large part in our lives." "Sebastian spoke less than the truth when he described him as someone of Mummy's." "He was someone of almost everyone who possessed something to attract him." "I'm supposed to mend my ways, Charles." "I mean, how does one mend one's ways?" "Join the League of Nations union?" "Read "Isis" every week?" "Drink coffee every morning at the Cadena café?" "That would be a start." "You could smoke a great pipe and play hockey and go to tea on Boar's Hill." "Yes, yes and I could go to lectures at Keble." "I could buy one of those little bicycles with a tray of books on it." "I could drink cocoa every evening and discuss sex seriously." "Very seriously." "Anthony Blanche has gone down." "He wrote me a letter." "He said he's taken a flat in Munich and started a relationship with a policeman." "I shall miss him." "Yes." "I shall, too in a way." "Anthony Blanche had taken something away with him when he went." "He had locked a door and hung the key on his chain." "All his friends, among whom he had always been a stranger needed him now." "Sebastian and I kept very much to our own company that term each so much bound up in the other that we did not need to look elsewhere for friends." "My cousin Jasper had told me it was normal to spend one's second year shaking off the friends of one's first and it happened as he had said." "Most of my friends were those I had made through Sebastian and together we shed them and made no others." "I kept to tenuous connection with the History school wrote my two essays a week and attended the occasional lecture." "Thus, soberly dressed and happily employed" "I became a fairly respectable man in my college." "And that is how Lady Marchmain found us when early in that Michaelmas term she came for a week to Oxford." "Mr Ryder." "A lady's been here, asking for you." "She left this message." "Thank you, Oakes." "I am so pleased to have found you, Charles." "I may call you Charles?" "Of course." "I feel I know you so well from Sebastian." "I've just had luncheon with him and Mr Samgrass." "Do you know who I mean?" "You may have met." "He's a very clever History don at All Souls." "He's been taking a great interest in Sebastian." "Yes, I heard." "I hope Sebastian will appreciate his interest." "I was so sorry to have missed you when you were at Brideshead." "Everyone loves your paintings in the Garden Room." "Well, it was very kind of you to let me stay so long." "I think it was Sebastian who was fortunate to have you with him all that time." "Is it true, as Mr Samgrass tells me that you're my son's only friend this term?" "Well, some people have gone down I suppose perhaps I am." "We do spend a lot of time together." "I'm glad of it." "I'm sure I have reason to be grateful to you, Charles, too." "Friendships like yours can be such a help." "She accepted me as Sebastian's friend and sought to make me hers also and in doing so unwittingly struck at the roots of our friendship." "That is the single reproach I have to set against her abundant kindness to me." "One morning, a week or two later" "Julia arrived in Oxford, driven by a man whom she introduce as Mr Mottram and addressed as Rex." "They both joined a small lunch party in my rooms." "One of the last of the old kind that I gave." "How much was it?" "Oh, just a few guineas." "So the H.R.H. Ended up having to pay me" "He can't have been more than thirty at the time we met him but Rex seemed very old to us in Oxford." "He'd arrived from Canada after the war had become a Member of Parliament a gambler and a good fellow." "Lucky with money." "You must remember, Mr Ryder, he's a Colonial aren't you, darling?" "He's never been to any sort of university." "Lucky you." "Well, it just means you start life about three years behind the other fellow." "And Rex has never stayed anywhere for three years have you, darling?" "He's told me some very rich stories indeed." "I remember one about two undergraduates and a goose." "Rex knows everyone." "Damn!" "My cigarettes." "Rex?" "Don't worry." "I'll get them." "They are in the car." "Excuse me, gentlemen." "Julia treated him as she seemed to treat all the world with mild disdain, but with an air of possession." "Look, I'm helping to organize a ghastly charity ball in London next month." "You two absolutely must come." "Rex is having a dinner party first." "I don't see why we should." "Oh, but you must." "The trouble with Rex is he doesn't know anybody young." "All his friends are leathery old sharks in the city and dreary MPs." "Well, we'll see." "Come on Charles." "Sorry." "Lunt's been playing games with my cufflinks." "Boy, you're not coming, are you?" "Yes, aren't I?" "Delighted dear boy, delighted." "I suppose I shall have to go in the back." "I suppose you realise that this going to be the most stupefyingly boring ball of the season?" "Oh, I don't know." "I haven't been to many balls this season." "It's so dreary this term, anything would make a change." "Don't drive like this." "It makes me sick," "Sebastian and I would spend the night at Marchmain House, so we went there to dress and while we dressed drank a bottle of champagne." "One, two, three." "I can't do it!" "Try." "But you're holding me you can't haul me around like that!" "God, Julia." "You're not even changed." "I know." "I'm going to be horribly late." "You'd better go on to Rex's without me." "You're very tedious." "It's heavenly of you to come." "We're all going to be hideously bored." "Well, don't be too long." "Keep them happy." "I say where on earth is Julia?" "How should I know?" "Probably gone to have dinner somewhere else." "Gosh!" "It's her dance." "But how will she get there without us?" "She'll be all right." "Oh, Rex, that absurd Jeroboam." "Why must you have everything so big?" "Won't be too big for us." "Now listen you chaps, let's chuck this ghastly dance and go to Ma Mayfield's." "Who's Ma Mayfield?" "You know Ma Mayfield." "Everyone knows Ma Mayfield of the Old Hundredth, the best club in town." "I've got a regular there, a sweet little thing named Effie." "There'd be the devil to pay if she heard I'd been to London and hadn't been to see her." "So come and meet Effie at Ma Mayfield's." "All right, let's go and see Effie at Ma Mayfield's." "We'll need another bottle of pop off the good Mottram cut the bloody ball and then go straight to Ma Mayfield's." "Look who's here." "At last!" "Sorry." "Brenda." "I'm so glad you didn't let him hold dinner up for me." "It's his Canadian courtesy." "Well, thank God you're here." "At last we can go." "This is all very well, but are you sure you know where this place is?" "Of course I do, 100 Sink Street." "It's just off Leicester Square." "We'll take the car." "Aren't we going to look in at the ball?" "Oh Charles!" "If you've seen one ball you've seen them all." "But I want to dance You can dance at" "Ma Mayfield's." "Not the same sort of dancing." "You had better not drive." "I'll drive" "I know the way like the back of my hand." "Jump in." "Ready?" "Yes." "How do you turn the bally lights off?" "Ask Hardcastle." "Good evening." "Are you members?" "You want to keep out of there." "You'll be poisoned and given a dose." "and given a dose." "You members?" "You members?" "My name is Mulcaster." "Viscount Mulcaster." "I'm an old friend of his mum." "All right." "Try inside." "You'll be robbed and poisoned and infected and robbed." "You're not members here, are you dearie?" "I say, that really is the limit!" "I'm extremely well known here." "You ought to know me by now." "Yes, dearie." "Ten bob each." "That's absolutely ridiculous." "I've never had to pay to get in here before." "You're lucky dearie." "We're full up." "Anyone who comes in after you is going to have to pay a quid." "Look, I insist." "Let me speak to Mrs. Mayfield at once." "You're speaking, dearie." "I am Mrs. Mayfield." "Well, Ma." "I really am It's so dark in here" "I didn't recognize you in your finery." "You know me, don't you?" "Boy Mulcaster!" "That's all right, duckie." "Just give us your ten bob each!" "Alright chaps." "I'll do it." "Is Effie here this evening?" "Who's Effie?" "Effie, one of the girls who's always here." "They've got lots of girls working here, some of them's dark, some of them's fair." "Some you might call pretty." "I haven't got the time to notice." "Thirty bob." "I say that's a bit steep." "I'm going to try and find Effie." "Cigarette?" "Thanks." "Come on, we're wasting our time." "They're only fairies." "Look you fellows" "I've found her." "This is Effie." "Lord Sebastian Flyte, Charles Ryder." "Effie" "Can you give some toast?" "Thank you." "That's another six bob!" "It's the first bite I've had all evening you know." "The only decent thing about this place is the breakfast." "You get fair peckish hanging about." "I seen you here before often haven't I?" "I'm afraid not." "Then it must be you I seen before." "I should rather hope so." "You haven't forgotten our little evening in September, have you?" "No, darling." "You were the boy in the Guards who cut your toe, wasn't you?" "Now, don't tease, Effie!" "Oh Lord" "I know!" "You were with Bunty that time we were raided and we all hid behind the dustbins." "Effie loves pulling my leg." "She's cross with me for having stayed away so long." "Aren't you, Effie?" "Well, I know I've seen you somewhere before." "Effie, stop teasing." "Please." "I wasn't meaning to." "Do you want to dance?" "Not just at the moment." "Thank God for that!" "My shoes are pinching me something terrible tonight." "For the lady, sir." "Thank you very much." "That's thirty bob." "Thank you, sir." "Cheers." "Cheers." "We're under attack." "Oh Lord." "Death's Head and the Sickly Child." "Tell them to go away." "Ladies, dear ladies." "Would you care to dance with my friend and I?" "Well if you really want to we don't mind, do we?" "We thought you were fairies at first, didn't we?" "Yeah when you came in, we both said, those two are fairies didn't we, Renee?" "Yeah, well that's what we said." "Well that's what you looked like." "That was because of our extreme youth." "And our extraordinary physical beauty." "I think you're very sweet really." "I think you're very sweet too." "How about a little party?" "Jus the six of us over at my place?" "Certainly." "Boy!" "We're off to a party just the six of us." "This very charming young lady says she's got somewhere to go." "I must go and tell Mrs. Mayfield we're going out." "Come on, Effie." "It was still early." "Not long after midnight when we regained the street." "The commissioner had tried to persuade us to take a taxi but we pile into Hardcastle's car and there laid our mistake." "Let me out of this." "I'm sorry if I am impeding the traffic, officer but the young lady insisted upon my stopping so that she could get out." "She would take no denial." "As you will have observed she was pressed for time." "A matter of nerves." "Let me talk to him." "Be a sport, handsome, no one's seen anything but you." "The boys don't mean no harm." "I'll get them into a taxi and see them home alright." "Look here, my good man there's no need for you to notice anything." "We've all been to Ma Mayfield's." "I reckon Ma Mayfield pays you a pretty good retainer to keep your eyes shut." "Well, you can keep your eyes shut on us as well and you won't be the loser by it." "My God, you'll pay for this!" "Do you know who I am?" "I am the Viscount Mulcaster!" "My father's the ninth Earl!" "Open this door!" "I insist on seeing a doctor!" "Telephone the Home Secretary." "Send for my solicitor." "Charles, are you there?" "Yes." "I am here." "This is a hell of a business." "I tell you the person to send for, Rex Mottram." "He'd be in his element here." "Well, you understand sir, we had to do our duty." "Of course, Sergeant." "This is an outrage." "I demand my legal rights." "It was for their protection, sir." "I'm sure you did the right thing, Sergeant." "We decided to let the young ladies go, sir." "Cigar?" "Thank you very much, sir." "Sergeant do you think we could keep this incident between ourselves?" "No, sir." "I'm afraid it's too late for that." "The report's already gone upstairs and we've taken the young ladies' names as witnesses." "I see." "Mottram, I intend to sue for wrongful arrest." "Tell him!" "Be a good fellow, Mulcaster." "Leave all the talking to me." "Is there anything else, Sergeant?" "Yes, sir." "If you'd like to complete the formalities sign for the sureties." "And if you gentlemen would like to sign for your possessions." "Sign there please, sir." "Thank you, Sergeant." "Thank you Sergeant Good night." "It had better be all there!" "We had all slept that night at Rex's flat." "Thank you." "In the morning, the display was impressive." "He called a man on Thrompos to shave us while his valet collected our clothes from Marchmain House." "Rex joined us after breakfast." "Good morning, gentlemen." "I trust you are feeling a little better." "This is Mr Selwyn who will be representing you." "Lord Sebastian Flyte." "How do you do?" "Good morning." "Mr Charles Ryder." "How do you do?" "How do you do?" "Lord Mulcaster." "How do you do?" "Hello." "Please sit down, Selwyn." "Thank you." "Sebastian's in a jam." "He's liable for anything up to six month's imprisonment for being drunk in charge of a car." "Unfortunately, you'll come up before Grigg." "He takes a grim view of cases of this sort." "Now, all that will happen this morning is that we shall ask to have" "Sebastian's case held over for a week to prepare his defense." "But you two will plead guilty say you're sorry and pay your five bob fine." "I'll see what can be done about squaring things with the evening papers." "Though "The Star' could be difficult." "Now, this is important" "Remember to keep out all mention of the Old Hundredth." "Now, luckily the tarts were sober and so they're not being charged but they've taken their names." "If we try and break down the police evidence they'll be called and used as witnesses." "We must avoid that at all costs." "Right, Mulcaster?" "Good." "We have to swallow the police story whole and appeal to the magistrates' better nature not to wreck a young man's career for the sake of a single boyish indiscretion." "It'll all work out alright." "Now, we shall need a don to give evidence of good character." "Julia tells me you have a tame one called Samgrass." "He'll do." "Meanwhile, you story is simply that you came up from Oxford for a perfectly respectable dance were not used to wine had too much and then lost the way driving home." "Well, let's take care of this and then see about fixing things with the authorities up in Oxford." "Everything happened at Court as Rex had predicted." "At half past ten that morning, we stood outside" "Bow Street Magistrates' Court." "Mulcaster and I had paid our fines and were free men." "Sebastian was bound over to appear in a week's time." "Five bob is monstrous." "They should have cleared us." "They put themselves totally in the wrong when they refused to call my solicitor." "I don't see why they should get away with it." "Mulcaster, it's all over now." "Anyway, I'm off to the City." "My Great Uncle's just snuffed it." "Taxi!" "I suppose Mummy's got to hear about it." "Damn!" "Damn!" "Damn!" "It's cold." "Why don't we just go back to Oxford and wait for them to bother us?" "Why don't we telephone Julia?" "I think I'll go abroad." "My dear Sebastian, all you're going to be is fined a couple of quid and given a stiff talking-to." "Yes, but it's all the bother" "Mummy and Bridey and the family and the dons." "I think I'd rather go to prison." "I mean, if I just slip away abroad, they can't do anything about it, can they?" "Can they?" "Yes, they can." "That's what people do when they're being chased by the police." "I know Mummy's going to make it seem she has to bear the whole brunt of the business." "Why don't we call Julia, arrange to meet and talk it over with her?" "Well, you are a pair of pickles." "Good morning, Julia." "I must say you look remarkably well on it." "The only time I got tight I was paralyzed all the next day." "I do think you might have taken me with you." "The ball was positively lethal and I've always longed to go to the Old Hundredth." "No one will ever take me." "Is it heaven?" "You know about that too?" "Rex telephoned me this morning and told me everything." "What were your girl friends like?" "Now, don't be prurient." "Well, mine was like a skull." "Mine was like a consumptive." "Goodness." "Does Mummy know?" "Not about your skulls and consumptives." "She knows you were in the clink." "I told her." "She was divine about it, of course." "It's Mummy's being divine about everything that worries me the most." "I can't think why you went and stayed with Mr Mottram." "You might have come and told me about it first." "Well, it wasn't really very much chance, Mama." "I am sorry if" "How am I going to explain this to the family?" "They will be so surprised to find that they're more upset about it than I am." "Do you know my sister-in-law, Fanny Roscommon?" "She has always thought I brought my children up badly." "Now I'm beginning to think she must be right." "Mr Samgrass do you think it would be any use if I spoke to the Chancellor?" "Well, Lady Marchmain, I've already spoken to Msgr Bell and persuaded him to call on the Dean" "She's been perfectly charming." "I don't see what you were so worried about." "I can't explain." "Mr Samgrass, how long have you known" "Lord Sebastian Flyte?" "Since he first came up to Oxford." "I am an old friend of the defendant's mother, Lady Marchmain." "What impression have you formed of his character?" "I would describe him to you, sir as a model student." "My deep regret is that a brilliant university career may now be at stake." "Is this type of incident in his character at all, would you say?" "I would say it was entirely out of character." "To my certain knowledge, Lord Sebastian has always conducted his life at the House with the most studious application." "The evidence is that the defendant came up to London to attend a charitable function, organized by his sister." "That is correct, sir." "It was a highly respectable affair" "I believe the explanation to be Lord Sebastian, sir is simply unused to wine." "The law of England is the same for an Oxford undergraduate as it is for any young hooligan." "Indeed the better the home, the more outrageous the offence." "It is purely by good chance that you do not bear the responsibility for a serious accident." "But for Mr Samgrass's evidence, I would feel disposed to give you an exemplary prison sentence." "However, I have accepted that you are unused to wine." "There will be a fine of ten pounds." "The usher will show you where to pay." "We were both gated for the rest of the term but the most lasting penalty we suffered was our intimacy with Rex Mottram and Mr Samgrass." "But since Rex's life was in London in a world of politics and high finance and Mr Samgrass's nearer to our own at Oxford it was from him we suffered more." "For the rest of that term he haunted us." "11 minutes and 15 seconds." "A marked improvement." "If they want to treat us like a pair of criminals we can behave like criminals." "Good evening, Sebastian Ah, Charles!" "I don't think we've been spotted." "How delightful." "Did I tell you I've been invited to Brideshead for Christmas?" "Your mother wrote me the most charming letter." "Charles, how good to see you." "You find me in solitary possession." "How are you?" "Very well." "I gather Sebastian's gone out hunting." "Yes." "We've had a lawn meet of the Marchmain hounds a deliciously archaic spectacle all our young friends are in pursuit of the fox." "I've been spending a cozy afternoon by the fire." "Sebastian, you will not be surprised to hear looked remarkably elegant in his pink coat." "Would you like some tea?" "Your arrival emboldens me to ring for some." "Is Lady Marchmain in?" "No." "She's driven off with her cousins to visit a neighbour." "She'll be back in time for dinner." "How can I prepare you for the party?" "Alas, it breaks up tomorrow." "Lady Julia departs to celebrate the New Year elsewhere and takes the beau-monde with her." "I shall miss the pretty creatures about the house particularly one, Celia." "She's the sister of our old companion in adversity" "Boy Mulcaster, and wonderfully unlike him." "I find her most engaging." "I shall miss her for I do not go tomorrow." "How long are you staying?" "Oh, well into the New Year." "And you, Charles?" "I don't know." "Tomorrow I start in earnest on our hostess's book." "Thank you which, believe me, is a treasure house of period gems." "Ah, the intrepid hunter returns." "Hello." "When did you get here?" "About an hour ago." "Had a good day?" "Where are the others, Sebastian?" "I got fed up so I hacked back." "I'm going up to change." "Come up and talk to me Charles, will you?" "Well, no doubt see you later, Mr Samgrass." "We went to chapel three times on Christmas Day." "Mummy found some eunuchs to sing High Mass." "It sounded very peculiar." "Well, we had the village choir bawling at us from the Minstrels' Gallery" "and Cousin Jasper dragooned us into playing endless games of Bridge." "Will I know anybody who's here?" "No." "I shouldn't think so." "They're all people of Mummy's and Julia's." "They'll all be there at tea." "Hello, Sebastian." "See what I mean?" "An absolute zoo." "Charles!" "You've arrived!" "Hello." "Hello, Cordelia." "Did you have a good Christmas?" "Quiet." "I'm going to ask Mummy if I can stay up specially late tonight in honour of your arrival." "Oh, that'll be fun." "Sebastian, what happened to you?" "Oh, I got bored." "Well, you missed the best part again." "We had the most tremendous gallop across Spring Fields six jumps to Platts Wood and I only just managed to stay on." "Well, we all know how brave you are." "Well, I'm braver than you and I've only go Mr Beelzebub." "Oh, Sebastian, good to see you." "Hello." "Quite a good day's sport." "I think the hounds got on much better form after we dragged Thaxton Wood." "I thought they pressed very hard, probably why we made the kill." "Ah, Ryder, how are you?" "Hello Bridey." "Very well, thanks." "When did you get here?" "Oh, Sebastian, what happened to you after you left the home woods?" "I came back early." "I looked all over the place for you." "Excuse me." "Our hostess has just returned." "She was asking if you had arrived yet." "You'll find her in her sitting room." "Ah, thank you." "I'm just going along to say hello to you mother." "Why?" "You'll see her this evening." "Well, you know." "I'll see you later." "I'm delighted Charles has joined the party." "It augurs well, I feel, this reunion of ours in your mother's house." "I look forward to our time together." "Did you enjoy your Christmas?" "Yes, yes." "I did." "Thank you." "I hope you've both managed to settle down after the 'incident'." "Back at Oxford, I mean." "I gather your penance hasn't been too harsh." "We were gated, but" "I expect you realise that we've Mr Samgrass to thank for that I mean that the pair of you weren't more severely dealt with." "He's worked extraordinarily hard, you know, on our behalf." "He saw the Proctor, the Vice-Chancellor." "He got Monsignor Bell to call the Dean." "Yes, I know." "Well, that's all over now, isn't it?" "I must make a short visit to the chapel before dinner." "I don't suppose I can persuade you to come." "We must make a Catholic of you, Charles." "Religion predominated in the house not only in its practices, the daily mass and Rosary morning and evening in the chapel but in all its intercourse." "Who's coming to Chapel for the Rosary?" "Well, I think I'd better look after Charles." "I must have my bath at once, Mummy." "I'm filthy." "I'll come." "I can change later." "May I come too, Lady Marchmain if you don't mind?" "Of course not." "Father?" "Certainly, Lady Marchmain." "What did Mummy say?" "Oh, she spent most of the time singing Samgrass's praises and reminding me of our obligation to him." "How he saw the Vice Chancellor and the Proctor." "Yes, I've had all that too." "I do wish Samgrass would go." "I'm sick of being grateful to him." "Yes." "Thank God, at least Julia's lot are going tomorrow." "Goodbye, Charles." "A Happy New Year!" "Oh, Julia darling, I forgot your present" "Oh, that's alright" "Goodbye Tom, goodbye Margaret, goodbye Bobby." "See you later." "See you all at Polly's if we don't get there by midnight, Happy New Year." "Hold on, Tom!" "Come on Charles." "We remained at Brideshead leading our own life." "I had no mind then for anything except Sebastian." "And I saw him already as being threatened though I did not yet know how black was the threat." "His constant, despairing prayer was to be let alone." "And since he counted among the intruders his own conscience and all claims of human affection his days in Arcadia were numbered." "He did not fail in love, but he lost the joy of it for I was no longer part of his solitude." "As my intimacy with the family grew" "I became part of the world he sought to escape." "I became one of the bonds which held him." "That was the part for which his mother in our little talks, was seeking to fit me." "You have so many beautiful things." "You know, Charles, when I was a girl, we were comparatively poor but still much richer than most of the world" "and when I married I became very rich." "It used to worry me." "I thought it wrong to have so many beautiful things when others had nothing." "Now I realise that it's possible for the rich to sin by coveting the privileges of the poor." "Can you see that?" "Perhaps." "The poor have always been the favourites of God and his Saints, but I believe that it's one of the special achievements of grace to sanctify the whole of life." "Riches included." "Wealth in Pagan Rome was necessarily something cruel." "It's not anymore." "But I thought that it was supposed to be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." "It's very unexpected for a camel to go through the eye of a needle but then, the Gospel is simply a catalogue of unexpected things." "It's not to be expected that an ox and an ass should worship at the crib." "Animals are always doing the oddest things in the lives of the Saints." "It's all part of the poetry the Alice-in-Wonderland side of religion." "Ready!" "Pull!" "Ready!" "Pull!" "Hello." "Where have you been all morning?" "With your mother." "Oh God." "Another of her little talks." "I can't help it if she thinks I'm ripe for conversion." "Ready!" "Pull!" "You shouldn't encourage her." "She can be very determined." "And I can be very stubborn." "You needn't worry about me." "Ready!" "Pull!" "Oh God, look at him." "Charles, I don't think I can take another day of this." "Why don't we go away somewhere?" "Where?" "Oh, I don't know." "Paris, Buenos Aires, New York" "Bayswater?" "I think I'd settle for Bayswater." "Do you think your father will have us?" "I don't think he'd even notice us." "After tea then?" "After tea." "Come on Sammy." "Ready!" "Pull!" "Ah, Charles." "I've just been telling Sebastian" "I've made the most interesting discovery." "Really?" "Pull?" "Oh, sorry." "That term at Oxford we took up again that life that seemed to be shrinking in the cool air." "The sadness, that had been strong in Sebastian the term before gave place to a kind of sullenness, even towards me." "He was sick at heart somewhere." "I did not know how and I grieved for him, unable to help." "When he was happy now, it was usually because he was drunk." "And when drunk, he developed an obsession for mocking Mr Samgrass." "Samgrass, green arse" "All this, Mr Samgrass took in good part." "As though each outrage in some way strengthen his hold in Sebastian." "It was during this term that I began to realise that Sebastian was a drunkard in quite a different sense to myself." "Sebastian, it's me." "Are you there?" "Sebastian, are you alright?" "What's the matter?" "Can I help?" "I got drunk often." "But through an access of high spirit and the love of the moment and the wish to belong and enhance it." "Sebastian drank to escape." "Nothing's the matter." "As we together grew older and more serious, I drank less, he more." "Then, a succession of disasters came upon him so swiftly" "There's nothing to be done." "And with such unexpected violence that it is hard to say when exactly" "I realised my friend was in deep trouble." "But I knew it well enough in the Easter vacation at Brideshead." "Charles, go away."