open, though rather irritable, temper, and disliked petty disputes; so he took his hat and walked out: a quick ear might have caught the words, always the case," and " selfish," as he opened the street door. 66 "an Mrs. Sydenham explained the case to her guest, Mrs. Beresford, on whom she feared the scene might produce an unfavourable impression. She said “she felt so much for invalids, that the very sight of them made her quite ill: that Agatha Isledon was a wonderfully good, a very high character, but that she had made a very foolish marriage; she had warned her beforehand; she had received," continued the lady, education which would have fitted her for the highest circles; was, as a girl, remarkably pretty, but had chosen to marry Stanley Isledon, a man of talent and piety, but of very small income. The consequence is she leads a very hard working sort of life; he has only about £400 a year; I don't think they have more than £600 between them, and I don't know how they are to get on," and here she stopped; and thought to herself, "I shall avoid intimacy with the Isledons; they will certainly some day become very troublesome. I don't like people with small incomes. Agatha ought to have married Sir Thomas Hawkins, member for Derbyshire; how foolish that was of her," and she tossed her head in her reverie. She took up her pen and wrote to Mrs. Isledon, to inquire for little Bertha, recommending change of air, and regretting extremely that circumstances prevented her inviting them to her house at present. The answer was satisfactory. Mrs. Isledon said they had all been much alarmed for the child, and that Mrs. Sydenham was quite right in concluding that as it had been a case of debility, she had derived much benefit from sea bathing, and felt thankful to Providence for the daily improvement at present observable. She finished her letter by saying she hoped Mrs. Sydenham would not allow the summer to pass without visiting Littworth Parsonage, and that she would bring the dear children whom she had not seen since they were infants. 66 "Here, Cecil, I am sure you will like this," said Mrs. Sydenham. Agatha Isledon hopes you will go in the summer to see her little girls and boy: what do you say to that?" "O! how nice! how nice!" cried the child, capering round the room in delight, "and may I take my new pony? Shall I see Philip? Is he as high as I am? About how tall is Bertha ? May I send them a letter by the post-office to say I shall come?" May Maude go too, Mamma?" said that little girl. 66 "I don't suppose we shall want Trickford, because I don't think Philip and Bertha have any nursery to be kept up in,” said the boy, deriving pleasure from this imagination. "It is not settled yet, and the summer is a long way off, and you must in the mean time be very good, or Agatha will not like you to be with her children. Pray have you read to-day ?" Both the children were silent. "Has Trickford heard you read as I ordered ?" 66 66 "Yes," said Cecil, we hav'nt." "Yes-we hav'nt-what do you mean? Either you have read or you have not." "We have," he replied in a low tone, and little Maude gazed up and left off looking at her picture-book for some minutes. Mrs. Sydenham resumed her task of writing invitations for a dinner party. The children had not read. Cecil was a boy of weak nerves, and his mother looked unusually severe as she repeated the question. Besides he recollected that once when this inquiry was made, he answered truly that Trickford had said when he brought his book that she could not be "worried with that nonsense," and therefore he had missed his lesson, which, he humbly submitted, was not his fault; and this being clearly proved by the concurrent testimony of Maude he escaped, but only for a time. Mrs. Sydenham repri manded Trickford for the neglect, and went such an unwonted length as to say if it occurred again she must find a governess, in which case she would dispense with her future services. She submitted with great meekness, declaring she had such a dreadful "nervis" headache she really hardly knew what she said. But she explained in terms that were not to be misinterpreted to the children, that her heavy vengeance would fall upon them if they ever dared to make such a wicked disclosure again, and she took care practically to impress the policy of seeking her favour, for Trickford pleased and Trickford displeased the children found were very different persons." The party which Mrs. Sydenham gave was in honour of the arrival of the Miss Spruce Burleighs, and intended, as that lady was fully aware, as an attention to Lady Sophia and Mr. Elvers, with whom they were connected. An observer placed hors de combat would, in listening to the style of conversation in which ladies sometimes indulge in the interval between dinner and tea, suppose that the eminence at which each is striving to attain is that of being as disagreeable as the delicate code of the laws of politeness will allow. The ladies upon this occasion having entered the drawing-room with Lady Sophia at the head, formed a semicircle round the fire, and looked with rather critical glances at each other; none made an observation for some minutes, though there were several inveterate talkers among them. Mrs Sydenham felt an effort was necessary, so she asked Lady Sophia if she was not expecting friends. "Yes," said the lady with a bow of the head, "I am; my uncle and aunt, the Duke and Duchess of Wilton, come to us on Thursday the 17th." "O really, I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing them." "Thank you, but," said the lady with a peculiar smile and elongation of her long neck, "my uncle and aunt do not come to Cheltenham to visit. They will not, I think, be inclined to leave our fireside; they are anxious to see me and the children previously to their going abroad." 66 Well, I have never been abroad," said Miss Clatford, a good humoured little lady who was called a blue stocking; "I suppose you have, Lady Sophia ?" "Not this winter," was the answer. She disliked the independence of this last speaker and withdrew to a sofa, where she indulged in a long look at Miss Clatford; it was enough to freeze and alarm a debutante, but Miss Clatford was invulnerable, and Lady Sophia turned her head the other way. "I understand," said old Lady Spaxton to Lady Sophia, "that your agreeable cousins the Miss Spruce Burleighs are coming to stay with Mrs. Sydenham." "To stay with Mrs. Sydenham !" she exclaimed with a degree of earnestness the occasion did not seem to demand. "What an absurd report! My dear Mrs. Sydenham, do you hear what arrangement the public have been kind enough to make for us?" (she had herself heard Mrs. Sydenham give the invitation ;) "I do wonder what will be said next. I assure you they have not the slightest intention of anything of the kind." She added in a low voice to Lady Spaxton, "the only way in which I can account for this report is that the youngest, Jane, is very delicate, and complained a good deal of draughts in their house, and perhaps she may therefore find it convenient to move to Mrs. Sydenham's; but I have not the least hesitation in saying the other girls have not the most distant idea of any thing of the kind." "Come here, Maude," said Mrs. Beresford; "where did you get all these long dark locks? I do think I shall steal some, you have plenty to spare I am sure," and she lifted up a cluster of chesnut ringlets. "What a pity they are not all cut short," said Lady Sophia. "Don't you like ringlets?" "To look well the hair should curl very nicely, and it should not be so terribly thick." "Well I admire it," said Miss Clatford. Again Lady Sophia gave a cold long gaze. 363 OPENING OF THE NEW SCHOOL OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD. THE customary celebration of the first of May at Magdalen College, which has been described in a former number, received additional interest in the present year from the opening of a very magnificent new schoolroom, just built from the designs of Messrs. Buckler. In style the building harmonizes with the beautiful architecture of the college, which was built in the reign of King Henry the Sixth. It consists of a single schoolroom, the internal dimensions of which somewhat exceed 72 feet by 24. The roof is very lofty, and consists of ten bays, ornamented with remarkably rich open work. The east and west gables are lighted by large pointed windows of ten lights each, the side windows (five on the south and four on the north side) are square-headed, with six lights in each. The east window will shortly be filled with stained glass, the gift of past and present members, and representing the armorial bearings of ten bishops and other eminent men connected with the school in times past. The chimney pieces are richly carved with heraldic subjects; the desks, panelling, and other furniture are of substantial English oak; and the walls are adorned with good portraits in oil of Cardinal Wolsey, once master of the school; Camden, the historian, who was educated in it; and the present venerable president of the college. The school is approached by a porch, over which is a small library, the staircase leading to which terminates in a turret and spire. The boys of the school were most of them astir at half-past three on May-morning. At half-past four they began the ascent of the tower, where the Latin hymn was sung as usual at five by the choir in surplices. At six the boys, the classical masters of the school, and some fellows of the college assembled in the school, and the choristers having chanted the 127th Psalm, the two first portions of the 119th, and the last Psalm, the school-prayers, which may be found in Mr. F. Smith's beautiful Manual of Devotions for the use of Magdalen College School, were intoned by one of the senior fellows. At seven o'clock a very large party of the boys and their friends breakfasted with the organist. The usual Saint's-day service (for SS. Philip and James) was performed in the chapel at eight. The day, as will be remembered by all who were interested in any of the numerous events which distinguished May the 1st, 1851, was brilliantly fine, and a light breeze displayed to advantage the school-flag with its white lilies on a blue field, which floated on the roof of the school porch. At noon, after the University Sermon, a selection of vocal music was performed in the school by the choir and others, nearly fifty in number, under the very able direction of the organist, Mr. Blythe. The performers were arranged in two choirs on a raised orchestra at the western end of the room. The audience was composed of between three and four hundred persons admitted by tickets, and including the vice-chancellor, the junior proctor, several heads of colleges and canons of Christ Church, and the mayor of Oxford. The following pieces were sung with excellent effect without accompaniments, Mr. Blythe acting as conductor. After this performance the choristers had their usual dinner in the college-hall, and the gentlemen, whose voluntary exertions had assisted the choir with such effect, partook of some refreshment in the same place. Nothing can exceed the liberality with which the college has combined to give a new impulse to the school attached to its noble foundation, with a view of extending its utility as a place of education. The new schoolroom is fitted up for about one hundred pupils, and though the present number scarcely exceeds forty (as many as the old school could accommodate), there is good reason to hope that, with the largely increased staff of masters, and the advantages offered by newlyfounded exhibitions and other acts of munificence, a large number will soon avail themselves of what is thus offered. Let a meek and angry person cast up their accounts together and compare the number of affronts and contumelies they have met with, and I believe the odds will be as great as between Saul's thousands and David's ten thousands.-FULLER. |