ite gracious."

"Then I think, papa, we had better start."

"Let me give you an arm down stairs, uncle," said Tom; and so he
helped his uncle down to the carriage, the two young ladies
following behind, and the landlord standing with obsequious bows
at his shop door, and looking as if he had never made an
overcharge in his life.

While Mr. Winter was making his acknowledgments to Hardy, and
being helped by him into the most comfortable seat in the
carriage, Tom was making tender adieus to the two young ladies
behind, and even succeeded in keeping a rose-bud which Mary was
carrying, when they took their seats. She parted from it
half-laughingly, and the post-boy cracked his whip and the
barouche went lumbering along High-street. Hardy and Tom watched
it until it turned down St. Aldate's towards Folly Bridge, the
latter waving his hand as it disappeared, and then they turned
and strolled slowly away side by side in silence. The sight of
all the other departures increased the uncomfortable, unsatisfied
feeling which that of his own relatives had already produced in
Tom's mind.

"Well, it isn't lively stopping up here when everybody is going,
is it? What is one to do?"

"Oughtn't you to be looking after your friends who are coming up
to try for the scholarships?"

"No, they won't be up till afternoon, by coach."

"Shall we go down to the river, then?"

"No, it would be miserable. Hullo, look here, what's up?"

The cause of Tom's astonishment was the appearance of the usual
procession of university beadles carrying silver-headed maces,
and escorting the Vice-Chancellor towards St. Mary's.

"Why, the bells are going for service; there must be a university
sermon. Is it a saint's day?"

"Where's the congregation to come from? Why, half Oxford is off
by this time, and those that are left won't want to be hearing
sermons."

"Well, I don't know. A good many seem to be going. I wonder who
is to preach?"

"I vote we go. It will help to pass the time."

Hardy agreed, and they followed the procession and went up into
the gallery of St. Mary's. There was a very fair congregation in
the body of the church, and the staffs of the colleges had not
yet broken up, and even in the gallery the undergraduates
mustered in some force. The restless feeling which had brought
our hero there seemed to have had a like effect on most of the
men who were for one reason or another unable to start on that
day.

Tom looked steadily