ds of Other Hall.

Whenever they accepted the invitation, the young and pensive viscount
seemed another man. He would join in the boys' mirth with the most
joyous alacrity, and talked to Violet with such vivacity that none who
saw him would believe what a shade of melancholy usually hung over his
mind. His life had been spent in seclusion, and he had never yet seen
any to whom his heart turned with such affection as he felt for Julian
and Violet. His mother observed it, and often thought that if she saw
in Violet Home the future Lady De Vayne, a source of happiness was laid
up for her only son, which would fulfil, and more than fulfil, her
fondest prayers. It never occurred to her to think that he would do
better to choose a bride among the noblest and wealthiest houses of
England, rather than in the orphan family of a poor and unknown
clergyman. What she sought for him was goodness and usefulness, not
grandeur or riches; a lonely and sorrowful life had taught her at how
slight a value rank and wealth are to be reckoned in any high or true
estimate of the meaning of human life; nor did it add greatly to her
desire for such a match that Violet, with her bright hair, and soft
eyes, and graceful figure--with her sweet musical voice, and the
rippling silver of her laugh, and the rich imagery which filled her
fancy--might well have fulfilled the ideal of a poet's dream. But
Violet was still very young, and none of Lady De Vayne's hopes had ever
for an instant crossed her mind.

Julian was at this time, and had been for some months, intensely
occupied with the thought and desire of winning the Clerkland
scholarship, a university scholarship of 60 pounds a year, open to
general competition among all the undergraduates of less than one year's
standing. This scholarship was the favourite success of Camford life.
It stamped at once a man's position as one of the most prominent
scholars of his year, and as the names of many remarkable men were found
in the list of those who had already obtained it, it gave a strong
prestige of future distinction and success. Julian had a peculiar
reason for longing to gain it, because, with his Harton scholarship, it
would not only enable him at once to enter his name as a pensioner,
instead of a sizar, at Saint Werner's, but even make him independent of
all help from his family and guardians. There would have been reasons
sufficient to account for his passionate desire for this particul