st in a subject which I hoped he had finally
dismissed from his thoughts.

In the second week of April the happy party at Royston was dispersed,
John returning to Oxford for the summer term, Mrs. Temple making a short
visit to Scotland, and Constance coming to Worth Maltravers to keep me
company for a time.

It was John's last term at Oxford. He expected to take his degree in
June, and his marriage with Constance Temple had been provisionally
arranged for the September following. He returned to Magdalen Hall
in the best of spirits, and found his rooms looking cheerful with
well-filled flower-boxes in the windows. I shall not detain you with any
long narration of the events of the term, as they have no relation to
the present history. I will only say that I believe my brother applied
himself diligently to his studies, and took his amusement mostly on
horseback, riding two horses which he had had sent to him from Worth
Maltravers.

About the second week after his return he received a letter from Mr.
George Smart to the effect that the Stradivarius violin was now in
complete order. Subsequent examination, Mr. Smart wrote, and the
unanimous verdict of connoisseurs whom he had consulted, had merely
confirmed the views he had at first expressed--namely, that the violin
was of the finest quality, and that my brother had in his possession a
unique and intact example of Stradivarius's best period. He had had it
properly strung; and as the bass-bar had never been moved, and was of
a stronger nature than that usual at the period of its manufacture, he
had considered it unnecessary to replace it. If any signs should become
visible of its being inadequate to support the tension of modern
stringing, another could be easily substituted for it at a later date.
He had allowed a young German _virtuoso_ to play on it, and though this
gentleman was one of the first living performers, and had had an
opportunity of handling many splendid instruments, he assured Mr. Smart
that he had never performed on one that could in any way compare with
this. My brother wrote in reply thanking him, and begging that the
violin might be sent to Magdalen Hall.

The pleasant musical evenings, however, which John had formerly
been used to spend in the company of Mr. Gaskell were now entirely
pretermitted. For though there was no cause for any diminution of
friendship between them, and though on Mr. Gaskell's part there was an
ardent desire to maintain the