better than you are. And so this is
your den? Well, it's--"

"Nothing very grand," put in George.

"Exactly, nothing very grand; but I dare say you find it as good a place
to read in as a drawing-room, eh? Now tell me all about yourself, my
boy, while I drink this good tea of yours."

And George, with light heart and beaming face, told his good friend of
all his doings, his hardships, his difficulties, his triumphs, and his
ambitions.

And Dr Wilkins sat and listened with pride and thankfulness at heart,
to find his young _protege_ the same earnest, unaffected boy he had
parted with from Muggerbridge six months before. They talked for a long
time that morning. The tutor and boy passed in review all the work
hitherto accomplished and discussed the programme of future study. Many
were the wholesome counsels the elder gave to the younger, and many were
the new hopes and resolutions which filled the lad's heart as he opened
all his soul to his good friend.

"And now," said Dr Wilkins, "I want you to take me to see your college
and chapel."

George looked perplexed. Who was _he_ to conduct a Doctor of Divinity
over his college. Such a hermit's life had he led that he hardly knew
the ins and outs of the place himself, and there was not a single man in
the college to whom he was not a stranger.

"I'm afraid you've chosen a bad guide," faltered he. "I don't know any
of the men, and very little of the place."

"Oh, never mind that," said the doctor; "it will be all the more
interesting to make a tour of discovery, so come along!"

George put on his cap and gown and obeyed. For a moment he wished the
gown had been long enough to conceal the patch on the knee of his
trousers, but the next he laughed at himself for his vanity.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of," thought he, "and if it _is_
patched--well, it is."

And thus consoling himself, he accompanied the doctor across the
quadrangle.

Men certainly did stare at him as he passed, and some of them deemed him
a queer "specimen," and others wondered what Saint George's was coming
to. But my master, if he noticed their looks, disregarded them, and as
for Dr Wilkins, he smiled to himself to think how prone mankind is to
judge by appearances.

"Unless I mistake," mused he to himself, "these young sparks of Saint
George's will some day think fit to be proud of their poor fellow-
collegian."

The two made the tour of the college, and finished up with the