d an incoherent apology about "expecting to see four young
gentlemen in fancy dresses;" and Hanmer and the captain tried all they
could to laugh off a _contretemps_, which to explain was impossible.
What the old lady took Mr Plympton for, and what Mr Plympton thought of
her, were questions which, so far as I know, no one ventured to ask. He
left Glyndewi the next morning; but the joke, after furnishing us with a
never-failing fund of ludicrous reminiscence for the rest of our stay,
followed him to the Oriel common-room, and was an era in the dulness of
that respectable symposium.

Dancing had begun in good earnest when we arrived at the ball-room.
There was the usual motley assemblage of costumes of all nations under
the sun, and some which the sun, when he put down the impudence of the
wax-lights upon his return the next morning, must have marvelled to
behold. Childish as it may be called, a fancy-ball is certainly, for the
first half-hour at all events, an amusing scene. Willingham and myself
stood a little inside the doorway for some moments, he enjoying the
admiring glances which his fine figure and picturesque costume were well
calculated to call forth, and I vainly endeavouring to make out Clara's
figure amidst the gay dresses and well-grown proportions of the pretty
Cambrians who flitted past. Sounds of expostulation and entreaty,
mingled with a laugh which we knew to be Branling's, in the passage
outside, disturbed both our meditations, and at last induced me to turn
my eyes unwillingly to the open door. Branling was leaning against it
in a fit of uncontrollable mirth, and beckoned us earnestly to join him.
Outside stood Dawson, stamping with vexation, and endeavouring to undo
the complex machinery which had hitherto secured his shako in an
erect position. He was in the unfortunate predicament of Dr S----'s
candelabrum, which, presented to him as a testimony of respect from his
grateful pupils, was found by many feet too large to be introduced into
any room in the Dr's comparatively humble habitation, and stood for some
time in the manufacturer's show-room in testimony of the fact, that
public acknowledgments of merit are _sometimes_ made on too large a
scale. Architects who give measurements for ordinary doorways, do not
contemplate such emergencies as testimonial candelabrums or irremovable
caps and plumes; and the door of the Glyndewi ball-room had no notion of
accommodating a lancer in full dress, who could n