Part 41 (1/2)

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 283]

Mr Poletiss were escorted in procession to the inn hard by, where dry changes of costuhter

As this little ed few, to have been purely the result of accident, it was not permitted, so Mr Bouncer said, to do as Miss Morkin had done by him - throw a damp upon the party; and as the couple who had taken a watery bath reat sympathy, they had no reason to complain of the incident Especially had the fair Miss Morkin cause to rejoice therein, for thebeen the innocent cause of her fall, and, as a reparation, felt <vg283jpg> bound to so particularly devote hi, that Miss Morkin was in the highest state of feratification, and observed to her sister, when they were preparing theipsy woman spoke the truth, and could read the stars and whatdyecallems as easy as ~a b c~ She told ht whiskers and a soft voice, and that he would come to me from over the water; and it's quite evident that she referred to Mr Poletiss and his falling into the brook; and I'm sure if he'd have had a proper opportunity he'd have said soht” So Miss Eleonora Morkin laid her head upon her pillow, and drea-favours

Perhaps another young lady under the sa!

A ball at Honeywood Hall terht with thearments, and were therefore enabled tocostu was the firstdown by himself to think over the events of the day As yet the time was too early for him to reflect calmly on the step he had taken His brain was in that kind of delicious stupor which we experience when, having been aroused froain shut our eyes for a moment's doze Past, present, and future were

[284 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

agreeably ht quickly followed upon another; there was no dwelling upon one special point, but a succession of crowding feelings chased rapidly through his mind, all pervaded by that sunny hue that shi+nes out froe of love returned

He could not rest until he had told his sister Mary, and made her a sharer in his happiness He found her just without the door, strolling up and down the drive with Charles Larkyns, so he joined the down a shady walk, he stammered out to them, with many blushes, that Patty Honeywood had proirl for you!” said Charles Larkyns, ”the very best choice you could have ht, as old Tennyson hath it For what says 'the fat-faced curate Edward Bull?'

”'I take it, God ood and increase of the world

A pretty face is well, and this is well, To have a daht'

”Verdant, you are a lucky fellow to have won the love of such a good and honest-hearted girl, and if there is any room left to mould you into a better fellow than what you are, Miss Patty is the very one for the ratulated on his good fortune and happy prospects, Miss Patty wasa si the like good wishes And it is probable that Mrs Honeywoodthis piece of fae lord and master; for when, half an hour afterwards, Mr Verdant Green had screwed up his courage sufficiently to enable him to request a private intervieith Mr Honeywood in the library, the Squire e load of embarrassment, and checked the he off like squibs, to enliven his conversation, by saying, ”I think I guess the nature of your errand - to ask hter Martha? A of a very la over a very difficult stile, the diplomatic relations and circumlocutions that are usually observed at horrible interviews of this description were altogether avoided, and the business was speedily brought to a satisfactory termination

When Mr Verdant Green issued from the library, he felt himself at least ten years older and a reatly is our bump of self-

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 285]

estee in existence who holds us dearer than aught else in the whole orld But not even a ynist would have dared to assert that, in the present instance, love was but an excess of self-love; for if ever there was a true attachs of the heart, it was that which existed between Miss Patty Honeywood and Mr Verdant Green

What need to dwell further on the daily events of that happy tiements of the two Miss Honeywoods were made known, and hoith Miss Mary Green and Mr

Charles Larkyns, there were thus three ~bona fide~ ”engaged couples”

in the house at the saement between Miss fanny Green and Mr Bouncer? But if this last-na, it would probably be owing to the severe aggravation which the little gentle himself ~de trop~ at some scene of tender sentiment

If, for example, he entered the library, its tenants, perhaps, would be Verdant and Patty, ould be discovered, with agitated expressions, standing or sitting at intervals of three yards, thereby endeavouring to convey to the spectator the idea that those positions had been relativelythe room, an idea which the spectator invariably rejected

When Mr Bouncer had retired with figurative Eastern apologies fro-room, there to find that Frederick Delaval and Miss Kitty Honeywood had sprung into remote positions (as certain bodies rebound upon contact), and were regarding hiies, he would betake hi on in that quarter, and there he would flush a third brace of betrotheds, a proceeding that was not much sport to either party It could hardly be a matter of surprise, therefore, if Mr Bouncer should be seized with the prevailing epidemic, and, from the circuht otherwise have been into Miss fanny Green's society And though the little gentlehly probable that soht come of it, and that Mr Alfred Brindle (whose attentions at the Christmas charade-party at the Manor Green had been of so n his pretensions to Miss fanny Green's hand in favour of Mr Henry Bouncer

But it is needless to describe the daily lives of these betrothed couples - how they rode, and sketched, and walked, and talked, and drove, and fished, and shot, and visited, and pic-nic'd -

[286 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

how they went out to sea in Frederick Delaval's yacht, and were overtaken by rough weather, and became so unroain - how, on a chosen day, when the sea was as calstone, and nevertheless took provisions with theht have found it impossible to put back from the island to the shore; but how, nevertheless, they were altogether fortunate, and had not to lengthen out their pic-nic to such an uncohthouse, and talked about the brave and gentle Grace Darling; and how that handsorey-headed old man, her father, showed thehter by Queen, and Lords, and Coarrulous about them and her, with the pardonable pride of a

”fond old man, Fourscore and upward,”