Peace to Grow Up

Jaikie has just graduated from Cambridge, and Alison wants to know what he has gained from his experience.

1935

King George V 1910-1936

Introduction

John ‘Jaikie’ Galt has taken Alison Westwater to dinner at a palatial London hotel to celebrate his graduation from St Mark’s College, Cambridge. Alison wants to know what Jaikie has learnt at University, and it isn’t anything found on a modular ‘Outcomes’ statement.

“YOU shouldn’t have brought me here, Jaikie,” said Alison. “It’s too extravagant. And you’re giving me far too good a dinner.”

“It’s a celebration,” was the answer. “I’ve done with Cambridge.”

“Are you sorry?”

“No. I liked it, for I like most things, but I don’t want to linger over them.”

The girl laughed merrily, and a smile slowly crept into Jaikie’s face.

“You’re quite right,” he said. “That was a priggish thing to say, but it’s true, all the same.”

“I know. I never met anyone who wasted so little time in regrets. I wish I were like you, for I want anything I like to go on for ever. Cambridge must have slipped off you like water off a duck’s back. What did you get out of it?”