tastic gleams across the furniture and
ceiling, and gave an odd, wild appearance to the cap and gown that hung
beside the door.

Lillyston was filled with surprise, and lit the candle on the table.
Lifting Hazlet on the sofa, he carefully looked at him to see if he was
correct in his first surmise, that the unhappy man had swallowed poison,
or committed suicide in some other way. But there was no trace of
anything of the kind, and Hazlet merely appeared to have fainted and
fallen suddenly.

Aided by Noel, one of those who had been alarmed by that piercing
shriek, Lillyston took the proper means to revive Hazlet from his
fainting fit, and put him to bed. He rapidly recovered his
consciousness, but earnestly begged them not to press him on the subject
of his alarm, respecting which he was unable or unwilling to give them
any information.

The next morning he was very ill; excitement and anxiety brought on a
brain fever, which kept him for many weary weeks in his sick-room, and
from which he had not fully recovered until after a long stay at Ildown.
As he lost, in consequence of this attack, the whole of the ensuing
term, he was obliged to degrade, as it is called, _i e_ to place his
name on the list of the year below; and he did not return to Camford
till the following October, where his somewhat insignificant
individuality had been almost forgotten.

Let us anticipate a little to throw light on what we have narrated.

When Hazlet _did_ come back to undergraduate life, he at once sought the
alienated friends from whom he had been separated ever since the
disastrous period of his acquaintanceship with Bruce. He came back to
them penitent and humble, with those convictions now existing in his
mind in their reality and genuineness, which before he had only
simulated so successfully as to deceive himself. I will not say that he
did not continue ignorant and bigoted, but he was no longer conceited
and malicious. I will not say that he never showed himself dogmatic and
ill-informed, but he was no longer obtrusive and uncharitable. His life
was better than his dogmas, and the sincerity of his good intentions
counteracted and nullified the ill effects of a narrow and unwholesome
creed. There were no farther inconsistencies in his conduct, and he
showed firmly, yet modestly, the line he meant to follow, and the side
he meant to take. As his conscience had become scrupulous, and his life
irreproachable, it mattered co