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Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 1851-1920

"Elizabeth's Campaign"

'Miss Bremerton, you and I were, I understand,
at the same University?'
Elizabeth assented.
'Is it your opinion that Universities are any good?--that after the
war there are going to be any Universities?'
'Only those that please the Labour Party!' put in Mannering.
'Oh, I'm not afraid of the Labour Party--awfully good fellows, many
of them. The sooner they make a Government the better. They've got
to learn their lessons like the rest of us. But I do want to know
whether Miss Bremerton thinks Oxford was any _use_--before the
war--and is going to be any use after the war? It's all right now,
of course, for the moment, with the Colleges full of cadets and
wounded men. But would you put the old Oxford back if you could?'
He lay on his elbows looking up at her. Elizabeth's eyes sparkled a
little. She realized that an able man was experimenting on her,
putting her through her paces. She asked what he meant by 'the old
Oxford,' and an amusing dialogue sprang up between them as to their
respective recollections of the great University--the dons, the
lectures, the games, the Eights, 'Commem.


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