ome foundation, and been settled
here, and been a useful man in his generation, sir; and a column, a
buttress of the Church of England, sir. Well, sir, here are my best
wishes for you, sir. When you come up for your Master's degree, sir--no,
I think it is your Bachelor's--which is it, Mr. Reding, are you yet a
Bachelor? oh, I see your gown."

Charles said he had not yet been into the schools.

"Well, sir, when you come up to be examined, I should say--to be
examined--we will hope that in the interval, reflection, and study, and
absence perhaps from dangerous companions, will have brought you to a
soberer state of mind, Mr. Reding."

Charles was shocked at the language used about him. "Really, sir," he
said, "if you knew me better, you would feel that I am likely neither to
receive nor do harm by remaining here between this and Easter."

"What! remain here, sir, with all the young men about?" asked Dr.
Bluett, with astonishment, "with all the young men about you, sir?"

Charles really had not a word to say; he did not know himself in so
novel a position. "I cannot conceive, sir," he said, at last, "why I
should be unfit company for the gentlemen of the College."

Dr. Bluett's jaw dropped, and his eyes assumed a hollow aspect. "You
will corrupt their minds, sir," he said,--"you will corrupt their
minds." Then he added, in a sepulchral tone, which came from the very
depths of his inside: "You will introduce them, sir, to some subtle
Jesuit--to some subtle Jesuit, Mr. Reding."

CHAPTER XI.

Mrs. Reding was by this time settled in the neighbourhood of old friends
in Devonshire; and there Charles spent the winter and early spring with
her and his three sisters, the eldest of whom was two years older than
himself.

"Come, shut your dull books, Charles," said Caroline, the youngest, a
girl of fourteen; "make way for the tea; I am sure you have read enough.
You sometimes don't speak a word for an hour together; at least, you
might tell us what you are reading about."

"My dear Carry, you would not be much the wiser if I did," answered
Charles; "it is Greek history."

"Oh," said Caroline, "I know more than you think; I have read Goldsmith,
and good part of Rollin, besides Pope's Homer."

"Capital!" said Charles; "well, I am reading about Pelopidas--who was
he?"

"Pelopidas!" answered Caroline, "I ought to know. Oh, I recollect, he
had an ivory shoulder."

"Well said, Carry; but I have not yet a distinct