below.

The solemn quadrangle, which an hour ago had looked so ghostly and
dreary, was now alive with a crowd of boys, descending headlong from the
inside and outside of four big omnibuses, hailing one another
boisterously, scrambling for their luggage, scrimmaging for the
possession of Mrs Farthing's or the porter's services, indulging in
horseplay with the drivers, singing, hooting, challenging, rejoicing,
stamping, running, jumping, kicking--anything, in fact, but standing
still. In their own opinion, evidently, they were the lords and masters
of Grandcourt. They strutted about with the airs of proprietors, and
Railsford began to grow half uneasy lest any of them should detect him
at the window and demand what right _he_ had there.

The scene grew more and more lively. A new cavalcade discharged its
contents on the heels of the first, and upon them came cabs top-heavy
with luggage, and a stampede of pedestrians who had quitted the
omnibuses a mile from home and run in, and one or two on tricycles, and
one hero in great state on horseback. Cheers, sometimes yells, greeted
each arrival; and when presently there lumbered up some staid old four-
wheeler with a luckless new boy on board, the demonstration became most
imposing.

"_See you to-morrow_!" thought Railsford to himself, as he peered down.
Suddenly an unwonted excitement manifested itself. This was occasioned
by an impromptu race between two omnibuses and a hansom cab, which,
having been all temporarily deserted by their rightful Jehus, had been
boarded by three amateur charioteers and set in motion. The hero in
charge of the hansom cab generously gave his more heavily-weighted
competitors a start of fifty yards; and, standing up in his perch, shook
his reins defiantly and smacked his whip, to the infinite delight of
everyone but the licenced gentleman who was the nominal proprietor of
the vehicle. Of the omnibuses, one got speedily into difficulties,
owing to the charioteer getting the reins a trifle mixed and thereby
spinning his vehicle round in a semicircle, and bringing it up finally
in the middle of the lawn, where he abruptly vacated his post and
retired into private life.

The other omnibuses had a more glorious career. The horses were
spirited, and entered into the fun of the thing almost as much as their
driver. Railsford long remembered the picture which this youthful hero
presented; with his face flushed, his head bare, his sandy hair wa