It is the only technical beer bust I ever attended.

I did not know the true inwardness of the affair when I accepted.

I imagined that the talk would be wild and high, that some of them might drink more than they ought, and that I would drink discreetly.
But it seemed these beer busts were a diversion of these high-spirited young fellows whereby they whiled away the tedium of existence by making fools of their betters.

As I learned afterward, they had got their previous guest of honour, a brilliant young radical, unskilled in drinking, quite pipped.
When I found myself with them, and the situation dawned on me, up rose my queer man-pride.

I'd show them, the young rascals.