In which some of Jasper's advice is vindicated

The Season of Brideshead
Et in Arcadia Ego, Chapter 3
As we begin a new chapter, we see some of Jasper's advice come back to haunt Charles a bit. Charles learns the lesson but he does not here acknowledge the source.

Here is what Jasper advised back in chapter one:

And go to a London tailor; you get better cut and longer credit.

And here is the lesson learned in chapter three:

I had started the term with my battels paid and over a hundred pounds in hand. All that had gone, and not a penny paid out where I could get credit.

This may take some explaining for anyone under 40. With Visa and Mastercard, your ability to buy on credit is dependent on the reputation you have with one of those two firms. Pay your credit card bills regularly and you have credit anywhere those cards are honoured. That is a relatively new thing in finance. Before credit cards became universal (this happened over the 1970s), you had to build up a reputation for reliability with different merchants. Every single business you dealt with was a relationship to establish and cultivate. The better a customer you were, the better the terms you got. (A lot of business-to-business finance is still carried on this way.)

Charles has failed to build any relationships. If he had, he would have less of a problem than he does here. He could simply go to people whom he had proven that he was a reliable customer to and say, "My allowance gets paid to me in two months, may I buy on credit now?" And he'd probably have been told that he could because the Ryders, while not as rich as the Flytes, are wealthy.

Now, Jasper's advice was about more than just money. It was about living well so as to get something that would serve you the rest of your life out of your time at university. Credit with debtors is a metaphor for much, much more.

With that in mind, we can read on:

There had been no reason for it, no great pleasure unattainable else; it had all gone on ducks and drakes. Sebastian used to tease me—'You spend money like a bookie'—but it all went on and with him.

Now there are a couple of things we might note here. The most obvious is that Sebastian is sponging off of Charles even though Charles is the less wealthy of the two. This is the first of many indications we will get in this chapter that one of the two lovers is giving a whole lot more than the the other, and I'm not talking about just money here.

The other thing, however, is the gambling metaphor. Remember that part of Charles' answer to Jasper was, "... that to love one other human being is the root of all wisdom". [Emphasis added by me] University is an opportunity to learn. Jasper is actually quite liberal (and truthful) in his saying that that learning need not necessarily be the stuff they teach you in the lecture hall. But Charles has bet everything on Sebastian.

The expression used to describe the situation where a gambler  has everything riding on one game is to say, "He has a big bank running." Charles has a big bank running on Sebastian.

Oh yeah, discussion questions:

1. Is loving one other human being the root of all wisdom?
2. Does the language that Charles uses here ring any bells? I mean the phrase it "all went on and with him"? Does it maybe call to mind this phrasing: "Per ip sum, et cum ip so, et in ip so."*

* Trans: "Through him, and with him, and in him." For non-Catholics, this is the way the doxology begins that forms the dramatic high point at the end of the rite of consecration in the Canon of the Mass, leading up to what is called the great Amen. It is second to only  the consecration, which immediately precedes it, in importance. Only God's priest may say these words during the mass.

The first post in the Brideshead series is here.

The next post will be here.