And yet I saw
some young fellows about the smoking-room who seemed, in the eyes of
one who cannot count himself strait-laced, in need of some more
practical sort of teaching. They seemed only eager to get drunk, and
to do so speedily. It was not much more than a week after the New
Year; and to hear them return on their past bouts with a gusto
unspeakable was not altogether pleasing. Here is one snatch of talk,
for the accuracy of which I can vouch-
'Ye had a spree here last Tuesday?'
'We had that!'
'I wasna able to be oot o' my bed. Man, I was awful bad on
Wednesday.'
'Ay, ye were gey bad.'
And you should have seen the bright eyes, and heard the sensual
accents! They recalled their doings with devout gusto and a sort of
rational pride. Schoolboys, after their first drunkenness, are not
more boastful; a cock does not plume himself with a more unmingled
satisfaction as he paces forth among his harem; and yet these were
grown men, and by no means short of wit. It was hard to suppose they
were very eager about the Second Coming: it seemed as if some
elementary notions of temperance for the men and seemliness for the
women would have gone nearer the mark.
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