X Billy : a Memoir of an old Friend 257 



sudden access of fury as never failed to quench his 

 curiosity for ever. 



Before he had been long at the University I began 

 to notice in him an increased seriousness of demean- 

 our, and a certain discrimination in his choice of 

 friends, such as are not always characteristic of the 

 human undergraduate. For heads of colleges he 

 showed a profound respect, and would single them 

 out for special attention during a walk round the 

 Park. To this rule, however, the Head of his own 

 college was, I regret to say, an exception, for he too 

 possessed a dog who was naturally a thorn in Billy's 

 side. Among professors and lecturers I am inclined 

 to think that he preferred the philosophers. His 

 selection of undergraduate friends, on the other hand, 

 was not based on any recognition of their intellectual 

 attainments ; the " pale student " he regarded with 

 indifference, if not with aversion, and he extended 

 his good-will more readily to the honest fellow of a 

 sporting turn, or to the scholar who did his duty 

 without overdoing it. When such pupils came into 

 my room, he would generally get up and welcome 

 them; of the others he would take no notice, or 

 growled if they made advances to him. Once only 

 he showed for a while some tendency to prefer the 

 undergraduate to the don, and insisted on spending 

 much of his time with a Devonshire lad living over 

 my head, who seemed to have some strange attrac- 



