st attention of such keen and
warm enthusiasts for beauty as the Camford undergraduates. Ladies are
comparatively rare apparitions in that semi-monastic body of scholars;
and ladies both young and lovely are rare indeed. So as Eva entered, so
young and so fair, the bright and graceful and beautiful Eva--with that
exquisite rose-tinge which the air of Orton-on-the-Sea had given her,
and the folded softness of the tresses which flowed down beside her
perfect face, and the light of beaming eyes seen like jewels under her
long eyelashes as she bent her glance upon the ground--as Eva entered, I
say, leaning on Mr Norton's arm, and touched, with the floating of her
pale silk dress, the surplices of the Saint Werner's men as they sat on
either side down the narrow passage, it was no wonder that every single
eye from that of the Senior Dean [Pace Decani dixerim!] to that of the
little chorister boy was turned upon her for an instant, as she passed
up to the only vacant seats, and Mr Norton caused room to be made for
her beside the tutor's cushion by the chaplain's desk. She was happily
unconscious of the admiration, and the perfect simplicity of her sweet
girlish unconsciousness added a fresh charm to the whole grace of her
manner and appearance. Only by the slightest possible blush did she
show her sense of her unusual position as the cynosure for the admiring
gaze of five hundred English youths; and that too though the dark and
handsome countenance of Mr Norton glowed visibly with a brighter
colour, (as though he were conscious of the thought respecting him,
which darted across many an undergraduate's mind), and even the face of
Julian, as he walked to the scholars' seats among the familiar ranks of
his compeers, was flushed with the crimson of a sensitiveness which he
would fain have hidden.

And I cannot help it, if even during the noble service--even amid the
sound "Of solemn psalms and silver litanies," the eyes of many men
wandered towards a sweet face, and gazed upon it as they might have
gazed upon a flower, and if the thoughts of many men were absorbed
unwontedly in other emotions than those of prayer; nor can I help it if
Julian was one of those whose eyes and thoughts were so employed.

What an evening star she was! And how her very presence filled all
hearts with a livelier sense of happiness and hope, and sweet pure
yearnings for wedded calm and bridal love! But she--innocent young
Eva--little knew of the s