rom the
Communion-table, and the pulpit planted in the middle of the aisle; but
at the time when these two young men walked through the churchyard,
there was nothing very good or very bad to attract them within the
building; and they were passing on, when they observed, coming out of
the church, what Sheffield called an elderly don, a fellow of a college,
whom Charles knew. He was a man of family, and had some little property
of his own, had been a contemporary of his father's at the University,
and had from time to time been a guest at the parsonage. Charles had, in
consequence, known him from a boy; and now, since he came into
residence, he had, as was natural, received many small attentions from
him. Once, when he was late for his own hall, he had given him his
dinner in his rooms; he had taken him out on a fishing expedition
towards Faringdon; and had promised him tickets for some ladies,
lionesses of his, who were coming up to the Commemoration. He was a
shrewd, easy-tempered, free-spoken man, of small desires and no
ambition; of no very keen sensibilities or romantic delicacies, and very
little religious pretension; that is, though unexceptionable in his
deportment, he hated the show of religion, and was impatient at those
who affected it. He had known the University for thirty years, and
formed a right estimate of most things in it. He had come out to Oxley
to take a funeral for a friend, and was now returning home. He hallooed
to Charles, who, though feeling at first awkward on finding himself with
two such different friends and in two such different relations, was,
after a time, partially restored to himself by the unconcern of Mr.
Malcolm; and the three walked home together. Yet, even to the last, he
did not quite know how and where to walk, and how to carry himself,
particularly when they got near Oxford, and he fell in with various
parties who greeted him in passing.

Charles, by way of remark, said they had been looking in at a pretty
little chapel on the common, which was now in the course of repair. Mr.
Malcolm laughed. "So, Charles," he said, "_you're_ bit with the new
fashion."

Charles coloured, and asked, "What fashion?" adding, that a friend, by
accident, had taken them in.

"You ask what fashion," said Mr. Malcolm; "why, the newest, latest
fashion. This is a place of fashions; there have been many fashions in
my time. The greater part of the residents, that is, the boys, change
once in three yea