"So it's all OK," said Chidder.  Teppic nodded gloomily.  That was what was so likeable about Chidder.  He had this enviable ability to avoid thinking seriously about anything he did.

A figure approached cautiously through the open gates.  The light from the torch in the porters' lodge glinted off blond curly hair.

"You two made it, then," said Arthur, nonchalantly flourishing the slip.

Arthur had changed quite a lot in seven years.  The continuing failure of the Great Orm to wreak organic revenge for lack of piety had cured him of his tendency to run everywhere with his coat over his head.  His small size gave him a natural advantage in those areas of the craft involving narrow spaces.  His innate aptitude for channelled violence had been revealed on the day when Fliemoe and some cronies had decided it would be fun to toss the new boys in a blanket, and picked Arthur first; ten seconds later it had taken the combined efforts of every boy in the dormitory to hold Arthur back and prise the remains of the chair from his fingers.  It had transpired that he was the son of the late Johan Ludorum, one of the greatest assassins in the history of the Guild.  Sons of dead assassins always got a free scholarship.  Yes, it could be a caring profession at times.

There hadn't been any doubt about Arthur passing.  He'd been given extra tuition and was allowed to use really complicated poisons.  He was probably going to stay on for post-graduate work.

They waited until the gongs of the city struck two.  Clockwork was not a precise technology in Ankh-Morpork, and many of the city's various communities had their own ideas of what constituted an hour in any case, so the chimes went on bouncing around the rooftops for five minutes.

When it was obvious that the city's consensus was in favor of it being well past two the three of them stopped looking silently at their shoes.

"Well, that's it," said Chidder.

"Poor old Cheesewright," said Arthur.

"It's tragic, when you think about it."

"Yes, he owed me fourpence," agreed Chidder.  "Come on.  I've arranged something for us."