Volume II Part 1 (1/2)
Charles Auchester
Volume 2
by Elizabeth Sheppard
CHAPTER I
Well, as if but yesterday, do I re I set out from Lorbeerstadt for Cecilia I had no friends yet horound; I was quite solitary in uewished Aronach good-day He was out in the town fulfilling the duties of his scholastic pre-eht hiave , and I also carried my certificate in my hand Of all ,taken another forht Iskar was to come also that ti Aronach had also forewarneddivine reminiscences upon that earthly road
With Starwood I had a grievous parting, not unallayed by hope onhis eyes,--an attention which deeply affected et the singularly s when I arrived Conventionalisland, and courtesy is taught another creed I think it would be impossible to be anywhere ht) did but at first serve to dazzle and distresseach other, or see in self-interested fraternities, broken by groups and greeters, in one immense hall, or what appeared to h the open gates to the open court; through the open court into the open entry and froion was drawn to the door of that very hall by the hollow multitudinous echo that crept upon the stony solitude It was as real to me a solitude to enter that noble space; and I wasround, I perceived none but males in all the company
There was not even a picture of the patron saintess; but there _was_ a picture, a dark e-tables I concluded from the style that it was a representation of one Gratianos, the Bachist, of whoentlerown, and none wonderfully handsoht But thetobeen ”out” in any sense They every one either had been s, or were about to smoke,--that is, most of them had pipes in their mouths, or those who had them not in theirtheun were preparing the apparatus
In a corner of the hall, which looked disreat exhibition of benches There were so their feet in the air, but all packed so as to take little space, and these were over and above the benches that ran all round the hall In this corner a cluster of individuals had collected after a fashi+on that took my fancy in an instant, for they had established themselves without reference to the pris thereof, upturned, with their own feet at the reversed botto inside those reversed botto the notion that they were in the enjoyment of plethoric slumber To make a still further variation, one bench was set on end and supported by the leaning figures of two contemporaneous medalists; and on the suainst the wall, a third e of Gibraltar,--unlike an ape in this respect, that he was talking with great soleloves, which had once on a time been white The rest were bareheaded, but all were fitted out with mustachios, either real or fictitious, for I had my doubts of the soft, dark tassels of the Stylites, as his own pate was covered with herotesqueness, this group, as I have said, attractedin every one of the faces that set me at my ease, because they appeared in earnest at their fun
I came up to thearded me with calm, notboys, certainly; and reentleman on the pedestal did not even pause until he ca an oration,--and I arrived in tinificant: ”So that all who in verity apply themselves to science will find themselves as much at a loss without a body as without a soul, for the animal property nourisheth and illustrateth the spiritual, and the spiritual would be of no service without the animal, any more than should the flame that eateth the wood burn in an empty stove, or than the soup we have eaten for dinner should be soup without the water that dissolved the coazed upon h sharp-shaped orbs Meantime I had drawn out my certificate and handed it up to hi fixed a horn-set glass into his one eye, shut up the other and perused the paper I don't knohy I gave it to hih up, and had been speaking But I had not done wrong, for he finished by bowing to e
”One of us, I presuroaned one as, as I had supposed, asleep But ravely returned to the treatht have been nobody appeared to listen except his twain supporters, and they only seeated, and had their senses under a spell The rest began to yawn, to sneer, and to lift their eyes, or rather the lids of them I need scarcely say I felt very absurd, and at last, on the utterance of an exceedingly ridiculous peroration from the orator, I yielded at once to the ih The effect was of syed began to laugh too; and finally, those very soan to stir, to open h grew a murmur, the murmur a roar, and finally the supporters theered, and let the pedestal glide slowly forwards The theorist must certainly have anticipated such a crisis, for he spread his arantly and conveniently as a cat from a wall upon the boarded floor
”Schurke!”[1] said he to leeful intention, I caught at it, and with one pull dragged off his glove The member thus exposed was evidently petted by its head, for it was dainty and sleek, and also garnished with a blazing ring; and he sole such perfor one fixed stare to each nail in particular
Then he flew at ned fierceness; but I had already flung the glove to the other end of the hall The whole set broke into a fresh laugh, and one said, ”Thou htest have sent it up to the beard there, if thou hadst only thought of it”
”Never too late, Mareschal!” cried another, as he love, which, however, lay three or four strides off He gathered it up at last, cruainst the wall It just h, and fell at the feet of two peralove till the other pushed hi a tremendous kick that sent it farther than ever fro and rush of a dozen towards it
They tore it one froh,--this time successfully,--it hit that panelled portrait just upon the nose A shout, half revengeful, half triuaht
”Gloves out, everybody!” cried several; and from all the pockets present, as it seeave up a pair of old wool ones that I happened to have withcommenced of that reverend representation in its recess
I aht it all fun at first; and as there is nothing I like so well as fun after music, I lent loves were knotted and crumpled, pair by pair, into balls, and whoever scrambled fastest secured the ht by uplifted hands and banged upwards with tenfold ardor, and no one was so ardent and risibly dignified as the worthy of the pedestal He behaved as if some valuable stake were upon his every throw; and further, I observed that after the gahed It was, at least, for half an hour that the banging, accohed so much that I could not throw, but I stood to watch the others So high was the picture placed that very feere the missiles to reach it; and such as touched the time-seared canvas elicited an excitement I could neither realize nor respond to All at once it struck ular they should pelt that particular spot on the wall, and I instantly conjectured them to be ini up reat door hoarsely creaked, and a voice was heard, quite in another key from the murmurous shout, to penetrate my ear at that distance, so that I immediately responded,--”Has Carl Auchester arrived?”
There was no reply, nor any suspension of the perforladly, yet tireeted h, in fact, it was but the result of temperah not tall, gave me the impression of one very much more my senior than he really was He held his arm as a kind of barrier between me and the door until I was safely out of the hall; then said to me, in a tone of chill but still reo in there? That was not a good beginning”
”Sir,” I replied, not staht not to go in there? It seemed quite the proper place, with all those Cecilians about; and, besides, no one told o in there again, and I certainly have not been haro there at times; it is there you will have to eat But a feho are really students hold aloof from the rest, who idle whenever they are not strictly employed, as you have had reason to notice I was induced to come and look for you, of whoe, in obedience to the Chevalier Seraphael's request that I should do so”
”Did he really reelic!” I cried And yet I did not quite find ; his irresistible quiescence piqued hty
”Yes, he is good, and was certainly very good to bear inas you are; I hope you will reward his kindness He gives us great hopes of you”
”Are you a professor, sir?” I asked, half afraid of my own impulse