, to live without ambition of one sort or other;"
replied Kate, sadly, "and a very poor kind of existence it is, I assure
you."

"What if we were to make a party, and meet him as he comes out? We might
persuade him to join us at dinner, too."

"Well thought of, Fred," said Sir Marmaduke. "Herbert seems to have
forgotten us latterly, and knowing his anxiety to succeed, I really
scrupled at the thought of idling him."

"It is very kind of you all," said Kate, with one of her sweetest
smiles, "to remember the poor student, and there is nothing I should
like better than the plan you propose."

"We must find out the hour they leave the Hall," said Frederick.

"I heard him say it was at four o'clock," said Sybella, timidly,
venturing for the first time to interpose a word in the conversation.

"You have the best memory in the world, Sybella," whispered Kate in her
friend's ear, and simple as the words were, they called the blush to her
cheek in an instant.

The morning passed away in the thousand little avocations which
affluence and ease have invented, to banish "ennui," and render life
always interesting. A few minutes before four o'clock, the splendid
equipage of Sir Marmaduke Travers, in all the massive perfection of its
London appointments, drew up at the outer gate of the University; the
party preferring to enter the courts on foot.

As Frederick Travers, with his two lady companions, appeared within
the walls, the murmur of their names ran through the crowd of gownsmen,
already assembled in the court; for although by College time, it still
wanted fifteen minutes of the hour, a considerable number of students
were gathered together, anxious to hear the result of the day. The
simple but massive style of the buildings; the sudden change from the
tumult and noise of a crowded city, to the silence and quietude of these
spacious quadrangles, the number of youths dressed in their University
costume, and either gazing wistfully, at the door of the Examination
Hall, or conversing eagerly together, were all matters of curious
interest to the Travers' party, who saw themselves in a world so
different from that they daily moved in. Nor were the loungers the
students only; mixed up with them, here and there, might be seen,
some of the leading barristers of the day, and one or two of the most
distinguished members of the House of Commons--men, who themselves had
tasted the sweets of College success, and were fain, even by a