ladies.
It is not very easy to move safely--let alone gracefully--in petticoats,
for those who are accustomed to move their legs somewhat more
independently. And it would not have been civil in Messrs Marlow and
Hastings to laugh outright at their lady-loves before company, as they
were sure to do upon their first appearance. A dress rehearsal,
therefore, was a very necessary precaution. But if it was difficult to
get the company together at six o'clock under the friendly disguise of a
wine-party, doubly difficult was it to expect them to muster at eleven
in the morning. The first day that we fixed for it, there came a not
very lady-like note, evidently written in bed, from Miss Hardcastle,
stating, that having been at a supper-party the night before, and there
partaken of brandy-punch to an extent to which she was wholly
unaccustomed, it was quite impossible, in the present state of her
nervous system, for her to make her appearance in character at any
price. There was no alternative but to put off the rehearsal; and that
very week occurred a circumstance which was very near being the cause of
its adjournment _sine die_.

"Mr Hawthorne," said the dean to me one morning, when I was leaving his
rooms, rejoicing in the termination of lecture, "I wish to speak with
you, if you please." The dean's communications were seldom of a very
pleasing kind, and on this particular morning his countenance gave token
that he had hit upon something more than usually _piquant_. The rest of
the men filed out of the door as slowly as they conveniently could, in
the hope, I suppose, of hearing the dean's fire open upon me, but he
waited patiently till my particular friend, Bob Thornhill, had picked up
carefully, one by one, his miscellaneous collection of note-book,
pencil, penknife, and other small wares, and had been obliged at length
to make an unwilling exit; when, seeing the door finally closed, he
commenced with his usual--"Have the goodness to sit down, sir."

Experience had taught me, that it was as well to make one's-self as
comfortable as might be upon these occasions; so I took the easy-chair,
and tried to look as if I thought the dean merely wanted to have a
pleasant half-hour's chat. He marched into a little back-room that he
called his study, and I began to speculate upon the probable subject of
our conference. Strange! that week had been a more than usually quiet
one. No late knocking in; no cutting lectures at chapel; posi