air to watch a figure passing along the
quadrangle in front of the bay-window.

'I say, Sartoris, isn't that Camden, the tutor who was turned out of
Magdalen a year or two ago for that atheistical book of his, and whom you
took in, as you do all the disreputables? Ah, I knew it!

"By the pricking of my thumbs
Something wicked this way comes."

That's not mine, my dear Miss Bretherton; it's Shakespeare's first,
Charles Lamb's afterwards. But look at him well--he's a heretic, a real,
genuine heretic. Twenty years ago it would have been a thrilling sight;
but now, alas! it's so common that it's not the victim but the
persecutors who are the curiosity.'

'I don't know that,' said young Sartoris. 'We liberals are by no means
the cocks of the walk that we were a few years ago. You see, now we have
got nothing to pull against, as it were. So long as we had two or three
good grievances, we could keep the party together and attract all the
young men. We were Israel going up against the Philistines, who had us in
their grip. But now, things are changed; we've got our own way all round,
and it's the Church party who have the grievances and the cry. It is we
who are the Philistines and the oppressors in our turn, and, of course,
the young men as they grow up are going into opposition.'

'And a very good thing, too!' said Forbes. 'It's the only thing that
prevents Oxford becoming as dull as the rest of the world. All your
picturesqueness, so to speak, has been struck out of the struggle between
the two forces. The Church force is the one that has given you all your
buildings and your beauty, while, as for you liberals, who will know such
a lot of things that you're none the happier for knowing--well, I suppose
you keep the place habitable for the plain man who doesn't want to be
bullied. But it's a very good thing the other side are strong enough to
keep you in order.'

The conversation flowed on vigorously--Forbes guiding it, now here, now
there, while Kendal presently turned away to talk in an undertone to Mrs.
Stuart, who sat next him, at the farther corner of the table from Miss
Bretherton.

'Edward has told you of my escapade,' said Mrs. Stuart. 'Yes, I have put
my foot in it dreadfully. I don't know how it will turn out, I am sure.
She's so set upon it, and Edward is so worried. I don't know how I came
to tell her. You see, I've seen so much of her lately, it slipped out
when we were talking.'

'It was very natural,'