des--" He said no more, but his proud
look at his sister's face seemed to imply that he expected rather to be
envied than laughed at.
Accordingly, they went up together, and, as the train drew nearer and
nearer to Camford, all three grew silent and thoughtful. They were
rightly conscious that on the years to be spent in college life depended
no small part of Julian's future happiness and prosperity. Three years
at least would be spent there; years wealthy with all blessing, or
prolific of evil and regret.
It was night when they arrived, and in the dimly-lighted streets there
was not enough visible to gratify Julian's eager curiosity. The omnibus
was crowded with undergraduates, who were chiefly freshmen, but
apparently anxious to seem very much at home. At the station, the piles
of luggage seemed interminable, and Mrs Home and Violet were not sorry
to escape from the unusual confusion to the quiet of their hotel.
Next morning, directly after an impatient breakfast, Julian started to
call on his tutor.
"Which is the way to Saint Werner's College?" he asked of the waiter.
"Straight along, sir," was the reply, and off he started down King's
Parade. In his hurry to make the first acquaintance with his new
college, Julian hardly stopped to admire the smooth green quadrangle and
lofty turrets of King Henry's College, or Saint Mary's, or the Senate
House and Library, but strode on to the gate of Saint Werner's.
Entering, he gazed eagerly at the famous great court, with its chapel,
hall, fountain, and Master's lodge; and then made his way through the
cloisters of Warwick's Court to his tutor's rooms.
On entering, he found himself in a room, luxuriously furnished, and full
of books. In a large armchair before the fire sat a clergyman, whom
Julian at once conjectured to be Mr Grayson, the tutor on whose "side"
he was entered. He was a tall, grave-looking man, of about forty, and
rose to greet his pupil with a formal bow.
"How do you do, Mr --? I did not quite catch the name."
"Home, sir," said Julian, advancing to shake hands in a cordial and
confiding manner; but the tutor contented himself with a very cold
shake, and seemed at a loss how to proceed.
Julian was burning with curiosity and eagerness. He longed to ask a
hundred questions; at such a moment--a moment when he first felt how
completely he had passed over the boundary which divides boyhood from
manhood, he yearned for a word of advice, of enc
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