him alone; Dodd must be in college by twelve,
and would leave Henley before ten. He waited
till he was tired of waiting. But at last the
door opened; he stepped forward, and out
tripped Miss Dodd. "Confound it!" muttered
Hardie, and drew back. However, he stood and
admired her graceful figure and action, her lady-
like speed without bustling. Had she come
back at the same pace, he would never have
ventured to stop her: on such a thread do things
hang: but she returned very slowly, hanging
her head; her look at him and his headache
recurred to him, a look brimful of goodness.
She would do as well as Edward, better perhaps.
He yielded to impulse, and addressed her,
but with all the trepidation of a youth defying
the giant Etiquette for the first time in his life.

Julia was a little surprised, and fluttered, but
did not betray it; she had been taught self-
command by example, if not by precept.

"Certainly, Mr. Hardie," said she, with a
modest composure a young coquette might have
envied under the circumstances.

Hardie had now only to explain himself; but
instead of that, he stood looking at her with
silent concern; the fair face she raised to him
was wet with tears; so were her eyes, and
even the glorious eyelashes were fringed with
that tender spray; and it glistened in the
moonlight.

This sad and pretty sight drove the vain but
generous youth's calamity clean out of his head.
"Why, you are crying! Miss Dodd, what is the
matter? I hope nothing has happened."

Julia turned her head away a little fretfully,
with a " No, no!" But soon her natural
candour and simplicity prevailed; a simplicity not
without dignity; she turned round to him and
looked him in the face, " Why should I deny it
to you, sir, who have been good enough to
sympathise with us? We are mortified, sadly
mortified, at dear Edward's disgrace; and it has cost
us a struggle not to disobey you, and poison his
triumphal cup with sad looks. And mamma had
to write to him, and console him against to-
morrow: but I hope he will not feel it so
severely as she does: and I have just posted it
myself, and when I thought of our dear mamma
being driven to such expedients, I——Oh!"
And the pure young heart, having opened itself
by words, must flow a little more.

"Oh, pray don't cry," said young Hardie,
tenderly; "don't take such a trifle to heart so; you
crying makes me feel guilty for letting it happen.
It shall never occur again. If I had only known,
it should never have happened at all."

"Once is enough," sighed Julia.

"Indeed you take it too much to heart; it is
only out of Oxford a plough is thought much of;
especially a single one; that is so very common.
You see, Miss Dodd, an university examination
consists of several items: neglect but one, and
Crichton himself would be ploughed; because
brilliancy in your other papers is not allowed to
count; that is how the most distinguished man of
our day got ploughed for Smalls; I had a narrow
escape, I know, for one. But, Miss Dodd, if you
knew how far your brother's performance on the
river outweighs a mere slip in the schools, in all
university men's eyes, the dons' and all, you would
not make this bright day end sadly to Oxford by
crying. Why, I could find you a thousand men
who would be ploughed to-morrow with glory and
delight, to win one such race as your brother has
won two."

Julia sighed again. But it sounded now half
like a sigh of relief; the final sigh, with which
the fair consent to be consoled.

And, indeed, this improvement in the music did
not escape Hardie; he felt he was on the right
tack: he enumerated fluently, and by name,
many good men, besides Dean Swift, who had
been ploughed, yet had cultivated the field of
letters in their turn; and, in short, he was so
earnest and plausible, that something like a smile
hovered about his hearer's lips, and she glanced
askant at him with furtive gratitude from under
her silky lashes. But soon it recurred to her that
this was rather a long interview to accord to " a
stranger," and under the moon; so she said a
little stiffly, " And was this what you were good
enough to wish to say to me, Mr. Hardie?"

"No, Miss Dodd, to be frank, it was not.
My motive in addressing you, without the right to
take such a freedom, was egotistical. I came
here to clear myself; I—I was afraid you must
think me a humbug, you know."

"I do not understand you, indeed."

"Well, I feared you and Mrs. Dodd might
think I praised Dodd so, and did what little I
did for him, knowing who you were, and wishing
to curry favour with you by all that; and that is
so underhand and paltry a way of going to work,
I should despise myself."

"Oh, Mr. Hardie," said the young lady, smiling,
" how foolish: why, of course we knew you
had no idea."

"Indeed I had not; but how could you know
it?"

"Why, we saw it. Do you think we have no
eyes? ah, and much keener ones than gentlemen
have. It is mamma and I who are to blame, if
anybody; we ought to have declared ourselves: it
would have been more generous, more manly.
But we can not all be gentlemen, you know. It
was so sweet to hear Edward praised by one
who did not know us; it was like stolen fruit;
and by one whom others praise: so if you
can forgive us our slyness, there is an end of the
matter."

"Forgive you? you have taken a thorn out of
my soul."

"Then I am so glad you summoned courage
to speak to me without ceremony. Mamma
would have done better though; but after all, do
not I know her? My mamma is all goodness
and intelligence; and be assured, sir, she does
you justice; and is quite sensible of your
disinterested kindness to dear Edward." With this
she was about to retire.