Dodd's hand with a little earnest look. But Mrs.
Dodd did not act upon the hint; she had learned
who the young man was; had his very name been
strange to her, she would have been more at her
ease with him. Moreover, his rudeness to the
other men repelled her a little; above all, he had
uttered a monosyllable; and a stinger; a thorn
of speech not in her vocabulary, nor even in
society's. Those might be his manners, even
when not aching. Still, it seems, a feather would
have turned the scale in his favour, for she
whispered, "I have a great mind; if I could but
catch his eye."

While feminine pity and social reserve were
holding the balance so nicely, and nonsensically,
about half a split straw, one of the racing four-
oars went down close under the Berkshire
bank.

"London!" cried Hardie's adherent.

"What, are you there, old fellow?" murmured
Hardie, in a faint voice. "Now, that is like a
friend, a real friend, to sit by me, and not make
a row. Thank you! thank you!"

Presently the Cambridge four-oar passed: it
was speedily followed by the Oxford; the last
came down in mid-stream, and Hardie eyed it
keenly as it passed. "There," he cried, "was I
wrong? There is a swing for you; there is a
stroke. I did not know what a treasure I had
got sitting behind me."

The ladies looked, and lo! the lauded Stroke
of the four-oar was their Edward.

"Sing out and tell him it is not like the sculls.
He must fight for the lead, at starting, and hold
it with his eyelids when he has got it."

The adherent bawled this at Edward, and
Edward's reply came ringing back in a clear
cheerful voice, "We mean to try all we know."

"What is the odds?" inquired the invalid,
faintly.

"Even on London; two to one against
Cambridge; three to one against us."

"Take all my tin and lay it on," sighed the
sufferer.

"Fork it out, then. Hallo! eighteen pounds?
Fancy having eighteen pounds at the end of
term! I'll get the odds up at the bridge directly.
Here's a lady offering you her smelling-bottle."

Hardie rose and turned round, and sure enough
there were two ladies seated in their carriage at
some distance; one of whom was holding him
out three pretty little things enough—a little
smile, a little blush, and a little cut-glass bottle
with a gold cork. The last panegyric on Edward
had turned the scale.

Hardie went slowly up to the side of the
carriage, and took off his hat to them with a half-
bewildered air. Now that he was so near, his
face showed very pale; the more so that his neck
was a good deal tanned; his eyelids were rather
swollen, and his young eyes troubled and almost
filmy with the pain. The ladies saw, and their
gentle bosoms were touched: they had heard of
him as a victorious young Apollo, trampling on all
difficulties of mind and body; and they saw him
wan, and worn, with feminine suffering: the
contrast made him doubly interesting.

Arrived at the side of the carriage, he almost
started at Julia's beauty. It was sun-like, and
so were her two lovely earnest eyes, beaming
soft pity on him with an eloquence he had never
seen in human eyes before; for Julia's were
mirrors of herself: they did nothing by halves.

He looked at her and her mother, and blushed,
and stood irresolute, awaiting their commands.
This sudden contrast to his petulance with his
own sex paved the way. "You have a sad
headache, sir," said Mrs. Dodd; "oblige me by
trying my salts."

He thanked her in a low voice.

"And mamma," inquired Julia, "ought he to
sit in the sun?"

"Certainly not. You had better sit there, sir,
and profit by our shade and our parasols."

"Yes, mamma, but you know the real place
where he ought to be, is Bed."

"Oh, pray don't say that," implored the
patient.

But Julia continued, with unabated severity,

"And that is where he would go this minute,
if I was his mamma."

"Instead of his junior, and a stranger,"  said
Mrs. Dodd, somewhat coldly, dwelling with a
very slight monitory emphasis on the "stranger."

Julia said nothing, but drew in perceptibly,
and was dead silent.

"Oh, madam!"  said Hardie, eagerly, "I do not
dispute her authority; nor yours. You have a
right to send me where you please, after your
kindness in noticing my infernal head, and doing
me the honour to speak to me, and lending me
this. But if I go to bed, my head will be my
master. Besides, I shall throw away what little
chance I have of making your acquaintance; and
the race just coming off!"

"We will not usurp authority, sir," said Mrs.
Dodd, quietly; "but we know what a severe
headache is, and should be glad to see you sit
still in the shade, and excite yourself as little as
possible."

"Yes, madam," said the youth, humbly, and
sat down like a lamb. He glanced now and then
at the island, and now and then peered up at the
radiant young mute beside him.

The silence continued till it was broken by a
fish out of water.

An under-graduate in spectacles came mooning
along, all out of his element. It was Mr. Kennet,
who used to rise at four every morning to his
Plato, and walk up Shotover-hill every afternoon,
wet or dry, to cool his eyes for his evening
work. With what view he deviated to Henley
has not yet been ascertained; he was blind as a
bat, and did not care a button about any earthly
boat-race, except the one in the Æneid, even if
he could have seen one. However, nearly all the
men of his college went to Henley, and perhaps
some branch, hitherto unexplored, of animal
magnetism, drew him after. At any rate, there was
his body; and his mind at Oxford and Athens, and