potted ham, there's a little at
the bottom of this tin, and there's some bread and an inch of butter,
and marmalade, and a few biscuits. And there was some sherry this
morning."

The girls all professed themselves very hungry and contented with
anything; so they sat around the table, and poor Flushington served out
meagre rations of all the provisions he could find, even to his figs
and French plums; but there was not nearly enough to go round, and they
lunched with evident disillusionment, thinking that the college luxury
of which they had heard so much had been greatly exaggerated.

During luncheon the aunt began to study Flushington's features
attentively. "There's a strong look of poor, dear Simon about him when
he smiles," she said, looking at him through her gold double glasses.
"There, did you catch it, girls? Just his mother's profile (turn your
face a leetle more towards the window, so as to get the light on your
nose). Don't you see the likeness to your aunt's portrait, girls?"

And Flushington had to sit still with all the girls' charming eyes
fixed critically upon his crimson countenance; he longed to be able to
slide down under the table and evade them, but of course he was obliged
to remain above.

"He's got dear Caroline's nose!" the aunt went on triumphantly; and the
cousins agreed that he certainly had Caroline's nose, which made
Flushington feel vaguely that he ought at least to offer to return it.

Presently one of the girls whispered to her mother, who laughed
indulgently. "What do you think this silly child wants me to ask you
now, Fred?" she said. "She says she would so like to see what you look
like with your college cap and gown on. Will you put them on, just to
please her?"

So Flushington had to put them on and walk slowly up and down the room
in them, feeling all the time what a dismal spectacle he was making of
himself, while the girls were plainly disappointed, and remarked that
somehow they had thought the academical costume more becoming.

Then began a hotly-maintained catechism upon his studies, his
amusements, his friends and his mode of life generally, which he met
with uneasy shiftings and short, timid answers that they did not appear
to think altogether satisfactory.

Indeed, the aunt, who by this time felt the potted ham beginning to
disagree with her, asked him, with something of severity in her tone,
whether he went to church regularly; and he said that he didn't g