The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99.,
October 25, 1890, by Various

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Title: Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., October 25, 1890

Author: Various

Release Date: May 28, 2004 [EBook #12468]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, VOL. 99 ***

Produced by Malcolm Farmer, William Flis, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

PUNCH,

OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 99.

October 25, 1890.

MR. PUNCH'S PRIZE NOVELS.

NO. IV.--BOB SILLIMERE.

(_BY MRS._ HUMPHRY JOHN WARD PREACHER, _AUTHOR OF "MASTER
SISTERSON."_)

[On the paper in which the MS. of this novel was wrapped, the
following note was written in a bold feminine hand:--"This
is a highly religious story. GEORGE ELIOT was unable to write
properly about religion. The novel is certain to be well
reviewed. It is calculated to adorn the study-table of a
Bishop. The L1000 prize must be handed over at once to the
Institute which is to be founded to encourage new religions in
the alleys of St. Pancras.--H.J.W.P."]

CHAPTER I.

It was evening--evening in Oxford. There are evenings in other places
occasionally. Cambridge sometimes puts forward weak imitations. But,
on the whole, there are no evenings which have so much of the true,
inward, mystic spirit as Oxford evenings. A solemn hush broods over
the grey quadrangles, and this, too, in spite of the happy laughter of
the undergraduates playing touch last on the grass-plots, and leaping,
like a merry army of marsh-dwellers, each over the back of the other,
on their way to the deeply impressive services of their respective
college chapels. Inside, the organs were pealing majestically, in
response to the deft fingers of many highly respectable musicians,
and all the proud traditions, the legendary struggles, the well-loved
examinations, the affectionate memories of generations of proctorial
officers, the innocent rustications, the warning appeals of
authoritative Deans--all these seemed gathered together into one last
loud trumpet-call, as a tall, impressionable youth, carrying with him
a spasm of f