Part 27 (1/2)

[186 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

unties his neck-handkerchief-buttons and then unbuttons his coat -takes another look froent Mr Mole

(beso the party, and then makes a rush for the vestibule, to be at the door to receive them

Let us take a look at them as they come up the avenue ~Place aux da; but as there is no rule without its exception, and no adage without its counter-proverb, ill give the gentlemen the priority of description

Hale and hearty, the picture of a, co the frozen snohich has defied all the besoent Mr Mole

Here, too, is Mr Charles Larkyns, and, moreover, his friend Henry Bouncer, Esq, who has co in their wake is a fourth gentle ministers, linen-drapers' assistants, and tavern waiters He happens to belong to the first-named section, and is no less a person than the Rev Josiah Meek, BA, (St

Christopher's Coll, Oxon) - who, for the last three months, has officiated as Mr Larkyns's curate He appears to be of a peace-loving, lah sportive as a lamb when occasion requires, is yet of ti in a feeble treble; he is tiards fe whiskers, that are far too timid to assume any decided or obtrusive colour, and have fallen back on a generalized whitey-brown tint But, though tietic in the discharge of his pastoral duties, and had already won the esteem of every one in the parish So, Verdant had been told, when, on his return froe, he had asked his sisters how they liked the new curate They had not only heard of his good deeds, but they had witnessedthe poor Mary and fanny were loud in his praise; and if Helen said but little, it was perhaps because she thought the e of ”sweet seventeen,”

an age that not only feels wars and thoughts may lie beneath the pure waters of that sea of maidenhood whose surface is so still and calm? Love alone can tell: - Love, the bold diver, who can cleave that still surface, and bring up into the light of heaven the rich treasures that are of Heaven's own creation

With the four gentle ladies, moreover, who, as penny-a-liners say, are ”possessed of con-

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 187]

siderable personal attractions” These are the Misses Honeywood, the bloohters of the rector's only sister; and they have co as fresh and sweet as their own heathery hills The roses of health that blooht into full blow by the keen, sharp breeze; the shepherd's-plaid shawls drawn tightly around theently swell into the luxuriant line of beauty and grace Altogether, they are damsels who are pleasant to the eye, and very fair to look upon

Since they had last visited their uncle four years had passed, and, in that tih they were not yet out of their teens Their father was a landed proprietor living in north Northumberland; and, like other landed proprietors who live under the shade of the Cheviots, was rich in his flocks, and his herds, and his men-servants and his maid-servants, and his he-asses and his she-asses, and was quite athe past summer, the rector had taken a trip to Northumberland, in order to see his sister, and refresh hiht at Honeywood Hall, and he would not leave his sister and her husband until he had extracted fro down their two eldest daughters and christreed to, and, more than that, acted upon; and little Mr Bouncer and his sister fanny were asked to meet theuests, Miss Bouncer's quarters had been removed to the Manor Green

It was quite an event in the history of our hero and his sisters Four years ago, they, and Kitty and Patty Honeywood, were ether lost their interest, and who considered it as pro-room on com-

[188 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

pany evenings, instead of being shown up at dessert Four years at this period of lifeladies, and the Green and Honeywood girls had so altered since last they met, that they had almost needed a fresh introduction to each other But a day's intimacy made them bosom friends; and the Manor Green soon saw such revels as it had not seen for e of the play-bills of provincial theatres) ”singing and dancing, with a variety of other entertain (as is scandalously affirmed) of a very favourite class of entertain mad riot at the Christmas season - wherein two performers of either sex take their places beneath a white-berried bough, and go through a species of dance, or ~pas de fascination~, accompanied by mysterious rites and solemnities that have been scrupulously observed, and handed down to us, fro the short - alas! ~too~ short - Christmas week, had performed more polkas than he had ever danced in his life; and, under the char a proficient in the ~valse a deux teht on a corresponding rotatoryswim before his spectacles in a hich will be easily understood by all bad travellers who have crossed froale of wind But Miss Patty Honeyas both good-natured and persevering: and she allowed our hero to dance on her feet without a iddy vision would have led then bodies

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 189]

It is an old saying, that Gratitude begets Love Mr Verdant Green had already reached the first part of this dangerous creation, for he felt grateful to the pretty Patty for the good-humoured trouble she bestowed on the aardness, which he now, for the first tiht end in, he had perhaps never taken the trouble to inquire It was enough to Mr

Verdant Green that he enjoyed the present; and, as to the future, he fully followed out the Horatian precept-

Quid sit futurue quaerere;nec dulces a> It was perhaps ungrateful in our hero to prefer Miss Patty Honeywood to Miss fanny Bouncer, especially when the latter was staying in the house, and had been so warmly recommended to his notice by her vivacious brother Especially, too, as there was nothing to be objected to in Miss Bouncer, saving the fact that soht have affirmed she was a trifle too much inclined to ~embonpoint~, and was indeed a bouncer in person as well as in naood-hu -lady acco art of photography, and had brought her camera and chemicals, and had not only calotyped Mr Verdant Green, but had estive of the deepest ads are not made to rule, and Mr

Verdant Green could see Miss fanny

[190 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]