Observing his semi-circularity and general condition, they hesitated a
moment; and then one of them remonstrated eagerly.: "For Heaven's sake
come back to the boat! There is a crowd of all the colleges come round
us; and they all say Oxford is being sold. We had a chance for the
four-oared race, and you are throwing it away."
"What do I care what they all say?" was the answer, delivered with a kind
of plaintive snarl.
"But we care."
"Care then! I pity you." And he turned his back fiercely on them, and
then groaned by way of half apology. Another tried him: "Come, give us a
civil answer, please."
"People that intrude upon a man's privacy, racked with pain, have no
right to demand civility," replied the sufferer, more gently, but
sullenly enough.
"Do you call this privacy?"
"It was, a minute ago, Do you think I left the boat, and came here among
the natives, for company? and noise? With my head splitting?"
Here Julia gave Mrs. Dodd a soft pinch, to which Mrs. Dodd replied by a
smile. And so they settled who this petulant young invalid must be.
"'There, it is no use," observed one, _sotto voce,_ "the bloke really has
awful headaches, like a girl, and then he always shuts up this way.
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