hat Miss Bretherton was looking rather thin and pale, but she
would not admit it, and chattered from her corner to Forbes and himself
with the mirth and _abandon_ of a child on its holiday. At last the
'dreaming spires' of Oxford rose from the green, river-threaded plain,
and they were at their journey's end. A few more minutes saw them
alighting at the gate of the new Balliol, where stood Herbert Sartoris
looking out for them. He was a young don with a classical edition on hand
which kept him up working after term, within reach of the libraries, and
he led the way to some pleasant rooms overlooking the inner quadrangle of
Balliol, showing in his well-bred look and manner an abundant
consciousness of the enormous good fortune which had sent him Isabel
Bretherton for a guest. For at that time it was almost as difficult to
obtain the presence of Miss Bretherton at any social festivity as it was
to obtain that of royalty. Her Sundays were the objects of conspiracies
for weeks beforehand on the part of those persons in London society who
were least accustomed to have their invitations refused, and to have and
to hold the famous beauty for more than an hour in his own rooms, and
then to enjoy the privilege of spending five or six long hours on the
river with her, were delights which, as the happy young man felt, would
render him the object of envy to all at least of his fellow-dons below
forty.

In streamed the party, filling up the book-lined rooms and startling the
two old scouts in attendance into an unwonted rapidity of action. Miss
Bretherton wandered round, surveyed the familiar Oxford luncheon-table,
groaning under the time-honoured summer fare, the books, the engravings,
and the sunny, irregular quadrangle outside, with its rich adornings of
green, and threw herself down at last on to the low window-seat with a
sigh of satisfaction.

'How quiet you are! how peaceful! how delightful it must be to live here!
It seems as if one were in another world from London. Tell me what that
building is over there; it's too new, it ought to be old and gray like
the colleges we saw coming up here. Is everybody gone away--"gone down"
you say? I should like to see all the learned people walking about for
once.'

'I could show you a good many if there were time,' said young Sartoris,
hardly knowing however what he was saying, so lost was he in admiration
of that marvellous changing face. 'The vacation is the time they show
themselve