STONYBROKE.

CHAPTER I.

IT was the eve of the University Boat-Race. In the remote East the gorgeous
August sun was sinking to his rest behind the purple clouds, gilding with
his expiring rays the elevated battlements of Aginanwater Court, the
ancestral seat of His Grace the Duke of AVADRYNKE, K.C.B., G.I.N., whose
Norman features might have been observed convulsively pressed against the
plate-glass window of his alabaster dining-hall. There was in the
atmosphere a strange electric hush, scarcely broken by the myriad voices of
hoarse betting-men, raucously roaring out the market odds of "Fifty to one.
Oxbridge!" or "Two ponies to a thick 'un, Camford!" Well would it have been
for the Duke of AVADRYNKE had he never offered the hospitality of his
famous river-side residence to the Oxbridge Crew. But the Duke had the
courage of his ancient boating-race whose banner waved proudly upon the
topmost turret, bearing upon its crimson folds the proud family motto,
"_Dum Vivo Bibo_."

And the sun went down, and within Aginanwater Court the sounds of wild
revelry shook the massive beams.

CHAPTER II.

THE Oxbridge Crew still sat in the marble supper-room, amid the _débris_ of
the feast that the Duke's Seneschal had laid out for them. The floor was
paved with Magnums and Maximums of the best Heidanseekerer champagne, most
of them as empty as the foolish head of the Duchess of AVADRYNKE, which was
at that moment reposing upon the brawny chest of Lord PODOPHLIN, the