Part 31 (1/2)

---A naiven to New Inn Hall, not only from its title, ”New Inn,”

but also because the buttery is open all day, and the members of the Hall can call for what they please at any hour, the same as in a tavern

[218 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

privately, and, when the day (April 1) on which the poems had to be sent in, had come, he had watched his opportunity, and secretly dropped through the wired slit in the door of the registrar's office at the Clarendon, a uished by the motto:-

”Oh for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still”

Weat the Manor Green and the Rectory, when the news arrived of the success of Charles Larkyns and Mr Verdant Green

________________

CHAPTER XII

MR VERDANT GREEN AND HIS FRIENDS ENJOY THE COMMEMORATION

THE Co the people ere drawn to the sight from all parts of the country, the Warwickshi+re coach landed in Oxford our friends Mr Green, his two eldest daughters, and the Rector - for all of whos in Oriel Street

The weather was of the finest; and the beautiful city of colleges looked at its best While the Rector met with old friends, and heard his son's praises, and renewed his acquaintance with his old haunts of study, Mr Green again lionized Oxford in a much more comfortable and satisfactory manner than he had previously done at the heels of a professional guide As for the young ladies, they were char; for they had never before been in a University town, and all things had the fascination of novelty Great were the luncheons held in Mr Verdant Green's and Charles Larkyns' rooh the grave old quads of Brazenface; happy were the two hearts that held converse with each other in those cool cloisters and shady gardens How a few flounces and bright girlish se! How sunlight can be brought into the glooirlish faces, where the light of love and truth shi+nes out clear and joyous! How the appearance of the Commemoration week is influenced in a way thus described by one of Oxonia's poets:-

”Peace! for in the gay procession brighter for, float a music fills the haunts of e blush beneath a maiden's smile

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 219]

Maidens teach a softer science - laughing Love his pinions dips, Hush'd to hear fantastic whisperspulses flutter under folds of starch, And the Dons are human-hearted if the ladies' smiles be arch”

Thanks to the influence of Charles Larkyns and his father, the party were enabled to see all that was to be seen during the Coht they went to the ae to say, Mr Bouncer's proffer of his big dru> declined On the Sunday they went, in the , to St Mary's to hear the Banificent choral service at New College In the evening they attended the customary ”Show Sunday” promenade in Christ Church Broad Walk, where, under the delicious cool of the luxuriant foliage, they met all the rank, beauty, and fashi+on that were assembled in Oxford; and where, until To,” they threaded their way amid a miscellaneous crowd of Dons and Doctors, and Tufts and Heads of Houses, -

With prudes for Proctors, dowagers for Deans, And bright girl-graduates with their golden hair

On the Monday they had a party to Woodstock and Blenheie, to see the procession of boats, where the Misses Green had the satisfaction to see their brother pulling in one of the fifteen torpids that followed immediately in the wake of the other boats They concluded the evening's entertain to the ball at the Town Hall

[220 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

Indeed, the way the two young ladies worked orthy of all credit, and proved theorous constitutions; for, although they danced till an <vg220jpg> early hour in the , they not only, on the next day, went to the anniversary sermon for the Radcliffe, and after that to the horticultural show in the Botanical Gardens, and after that to the concert in the Sheldonian Theatre, but - as though they had not had enough to fatigue the one of the ball-giving colleges - wind up the night by accepting the polite invitation of Mr Verdant Green and Mr Charles Larkyns to a ball given in their college hall And howladies danced, and how many waltzes they waltzed, and how many ices they consumed, and how e of desperation, it would be improper, if not iht have been fagged by their exertions of feet and features, it is certain that, by ten of the clock the nextto the view, in the ladies' gallery in the theatre There - after the proceedings had been opened by the undergraduates in ~their~ peculiar way, and by the vice-chancellor in ~his~ peculiar way - and, after the degrees had been conferred, and the public orator had delivered an oration in a tongue not understanded of the people, our friends fro Mr Charles Larkyns ascend the rostrums to deliver, in their proper order, the Latin Essay and the English Verse He had chosen his friend Verdant to be his pro-lamps” of our hero formed, as it were, a very focus of attraction: but it ell for Mr Charles Larkyns that he was possessed of self-control and a good memory, for Mr Verdant Green was far too nervous to have prompted him in any efficient manner We may be sure, that in all that bevy of fair woht eyes kindled with rapture, and one heart beat with exulting joy, when the deafening cheers that followed the

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 221]

poet's description of the redients which are apparently necessary for the sweetening of all prize poeh the theatre andAnd we may be sure that, when it was all over, and when the Commemoration had come to an end, Charles Larkyns felt rewarded for all his hours <vg221jpg> of labour by the deep love garnered up in his heart by the trustful affection of one who had beco after they had all returned to the Manor Green that our hero said to his friend, ”How I ~do~ wish that this day ere come!”

”I dare say you do,” replied the friend: ”and I dare say that the pretty Patty is wishi+ng the sahed but blushed!