his morning it
was from Violet, and he could see well how anxiously they were awaiting
the result of his present examination, and yet how sure they were that
he would succeed. Unwilling to trouble them by the painful
circumstances of the day before, he determined not to write home again
until the decision was made known.

This morning's paper was to be the last, and Julian applied to it the
utmost vigour of his powers. After the first few moments, he had
utterly banished every sorrowful reflection, and when the clock struck
twelve, he felt that once more he had done himself justice. He answered
with a smiling assent, the examiner's expressed hope, that his health
was better than it had been the day before, and joining Owen as he left
the senate-house, found, on comparing notes, that he had done the paper
at least as well as his dreaded but friendly rival.

His spirits rose, and his hopes revived in full. Shaking off
examination reminiscences, he proposed to De Vayne, Kennedy, and
Lillyston a bathe in the Iscam, and then a long run across the country.
They started at once, laughing and talking incessantly on every subject,
except the Clerkland, which was tabooed. Ten minutes' run brought them
to a green bend of the Iscam, where a bathing-shed had been built, and
after enjoying the bathe as only the first bathe in a season can be
enjoyed, they struck off over the fields towards some neighbouring
villages, which De Vayne had often wanted to visit, because their old
churches contained some quaint specimens of early architecture. On the
way they passed through Barton Wood, and there found some fine specimens
of herb Paris, with large bright purple berries resting on its topmost
trifoliations, one of which Julian eagerly seized, saying that his
sister had long wanted one for her collection of dried plants.

"I suppose you want the one you have gathered, De Vayne, for some
botanist," said Lillyston.

"No--yes--at least I meant it for a lady, too; but it's of no use now,"
he said stammering.

"For a lady--of no use _now_," said Kennedy laughing; "what do you
mean?"

"Oh, never mind," said Julian, as he noticed De Vayne's blush, and
divined that he had meant the plant for Violet, but without knowing how
much he was vexed by losing the opportunity of doing something for her.

They had a beautiful walk; De Vayne made little sketches of the windows
and gargoyles of the village churches, and they all returned in the
e