PETER BINNEY

A NOVEL

BY

ARCHIBALD MARSHALL

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1921

PUBLISHED 1921 IN U. S. A.
BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.

First Printing, September, 1921
Second Printing, October, 1921
Third Printing, December, 1921
Fourth Printing, January, 1922

PRINTED IN THE USA BY
The Quinn & Boden Company
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
RAHWAY NEW JERSEY

TO
E. F. BENSON

INTRODUCTION

It is over twenty years since "Peter Binney" was first published in England, and I should be unwilling to offer it to my American readers at this time of day without some plea for leniency towards a young man's book, which contains perhaps more than the average number of crudities to be found in such beginnings. A few of the crudities I have been able to soften, but if you begin tampering with early work in the light of maturer knowledge, you are very apt to rub off the bloom that attaches to it just because it is early work, written with spirit and freshness, though with little skill. So I have left "Peter Binney" much as it was, with most of its imperfections on its head, and I trust some compensating merits.

One merit I know it to possess. It presents a picture of the lighter side of undergraduate life as it was in Oxford and Cambridge, and as it still exists, in spite of superficial changes; and that is something that can only be done by a young man, whose memories are still fresh, and to whom that life is still important enough to make it the basis of a story.

New York, July, 1921

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I    Mr. Binney Makes Up His Mind
II    Mr. Binney Interviews One Tutor, and Engages Another
III    Lucius Wins a Year's Respite
IV    No Help To Be Gained from Mrs. Higginbotham
V    Mr. Binney Arrives in Cambridge
VI    Lord Blathgowrie Has Something to Say
VII    Mr. Binney Speaks at the Union And Makes a Distinguished Acquaintance
VIII    The Newnham Girl
IX    Mr. Binney Gives a Dinner and Receives a Rebuff
X    "The New Court Chronicle"
XI    "Put Him in the Fountain"
XII    Lucius Makes One Discovery and Mrs. Toller Another
XIII    Mr. Binney Gets into Trouble
XIV    Nemesis
XV    Lucius Finds a Backwater
XVI    Third Trinity Makes a Bump
XVII    Mr. Binney Drinks the Health of a "Blue"

CHAPTER I

MR. BINNEY MAKES UP HIS MIND

"I'll do it to-day," said Peter Binney.

He had been sitting deep in thought ever since he had climbed on to the omnibus outside his place of business in the Whitechapel Road. As the vehicle pursued its ponderous way through the crowded streets of the City, stopping now and again to add to its load of homeward-bound business men, Mr. Binney sat in his seat, silent and preoccupied, his eyes on the ground and a thoughtful frown on his face. As it left the Post Office, full inside and out, and bowled smartly along the broad asphalted road towards the Viaduct, his face cleared, the light of determination shone in his eye, and looking up, he said aloud:—

"I'll do it to-day."

His fellow passengers gazed at him in surprise, and a young lady who sat by his side, heavily fringed and feathered, and laden with a huge cardboard box, laughed a coarse laugh, and said:

"That's right, guv'nor, don't you put it off no longer."

Mr. Binney had not intended to express his determination aloud, and the notice his remark had drawn annoyed him. As the young lady was apparently turning over in her mind further witticisms, he decided to leave the omnibus and walk the rest of the way to his house in Russell Square. He made his way slowly down the unsteady stairs, and the young lady said:

"A good cup o' beef tea's what you want, George, and don't forgit the 'ot-water bottle," and as the omnibus pursued its way, leaving him walking briskly along the pavement, she leant over the side and called out, "Git Mariar to put a mustard plaster on yer chest," which made the people on the omnibus laugh, although Mr. Binney could see no humour in the remark.

He had come, however, to such a momentous decision during the last half-hour that by the time he had gone a dozen steps he had ceased to feel any irritation at the young lady's pleasantries, and walked smartly along, his brain all on fire with his mighty purpose.

Peter Binney was a small man of about forty-five years of age. His hair was gingery, and his whiskers decidedly red. He looked rather like a little bantam-cock as he strutted along, and this was a curious coincidence, for he had made his fortune by selling poultry food.

Every one has heard of Binney's Food for Poultry. Indeed it would be quite impossible for anybody who is able to read to be unaware of its existence, for its fame is blazoned on every hoarding in the United Kingdom. It was Peter Binney who first conceived the idea of advancing the cause of art and advertising his wares at the same time. In the early days, when the future world-famed business was just emerging from its chrysalis