tempt their gay possessor to pass the rubicon of prudence as easily as-as-he would a double post and rail. Ah!"

Here the mild man stopped short, and scrutinized Eden's face for a moment.

"Sir," he then resumed," sir, I give you my honour that, in losing Mr. Raffleton, I shall lose more than I can express. By the playfulness of his disposition, the profuseness of his liberality, the I had almost said nobility of his manners, he has endeared himself to all the house. Ah! why will not Proctors remember that they too have once been young?"

Here the mild man suddenly threw open a door which led into a most extensive shop, evidently devoted to the tailoring business.

"You appear, sir," said the mild man, "to have been but a short time in Oxford. In that short time, however, it is not absolutely impossible that the name of Mr. Walrus and his Hierokosmion may have reached you."

"Mr. Walrus and his what?" asked Eden, fairly astonished at last beyond all power of suppression.

"Hierokosmion," said the mild man. "I am that Mr. Walrus-this is my Hierokosmion.”

"Oh!" said Eden, becoming at once alive to the reason why the street-door had stuck, and he himself been invited to make his exit through the shop. "Oh! I see now."

"Yes," resumed Mr. Walrus, looking with an air of ineffable dignity, blended with extreme sweetness, round the shop; "this is my Hierokosmion, or temple of fashion; being a Greek word —as I need not tell you, sir, compounded of hieron-fashion, and kosmosa temple. Bring down some of them summer waistcoatings, Jemes."

Jemes, who was the shop-boy, with a rival white tie to his master's, instantly proceeded to obey.

"Thank you," said Eden, "I'm not exactly in want of" "No, sir," said Mr. Walrus; " I should only wish you, as a friend of Mr. Raffleton's, just to glance over the establishment, with a view to future favours. More stripes, Jemes. waterproof cloaks, sir, are unrivalled allow me. There is a fact, sir, connected with these, which is, I believe, not generally known. You have heard of Grace Darling, of course, sir."

Our

"Oh, yes," said Eden, somewhat at a loss to know what was coming next. "The lady who saved some lives at a wreck, you mean. Yes. Well

"Well, sir," said Mr. Walrus, mysteriously sinking his voice to a whisper," well, sir, it is not generally known, as I said before, but, during the whole of that tremendous storm, when the waves ran mountains high, and the rain fell in torrents round the frail boat in which they had embarked, that heroic girl and her aged parent were enveloped in two of my patent waterproofs, and were thus enabled to brave alike the blast and

VOL. VI.

о

6

the billow in the cause of suffering humanity. I never see the picture of her, sir, but I identify myself in a manner with that cause. You smile, sir; I can refer to my books for the fact. 'Walrus waterproofs' we used to call them before; Darling dreadnoughts' we call them ever since, for the alliteration, you perceive, sir. Some of them figured Egyptian silks in the window, Jemes."

"Yes," said Eden, "it's all very well; and you're very poetical, Mr. Walrus; but really I don't happen to

"No, sir," said Mr. Walrus; "of course not that is, at present. Sweet thing this rose and rhododendron pattern, sir. This is a nice quiet thing, too, for breakfasting with a tutor, or anything in a mild way. Allow me, sir; more to the light-so.' "You seem to have reduced the study of dress to a science,” said Eden.

66

"Science, sir," said the mild man ; I believe you. Science ! ah! where should we be without it? We, sir, who breathe a classical air-who live, if I may be allowed the expression, in a logical atmosphere, unconsciously learn to systematise our ideas on the most trifling matters, — much more so on such a noble study as that of dress. There are in Oxford, sir, four sorts of dress in a logical moment I divided them. There is, first, the quiet, or gentlemanly; secondly, the romantic, or ultra-gorgeous; and thirdly, the sporting, or cord-and-cut-away costume; and, fourthly, the domestic, or dirty; which last is confined solely to reading-men. Jemes, show the gentleman that romantic dresswaistcoat we made for the Earl of May to go to the Woodstock ball in. Singularly ultra-gorgeous, is it not, sir?"

If there be any among my readers whose lot it has been, even as it once was mine, to be exposed, as Freshmen, to the tender mercies of Mr. Walrus, they will readily believe that our hero found himself utterly unable to extricate himself from the meshes of the "Hierokosmion," until he had been fairly (or rather unfairly) seduced into an order for a full suit of "quiet or gentlemanly" vestments.

"And, mind you let me have them soon, Mr. Walrus," said Eden; or else, you know, youth will still be youth,' and I shall come and blow you up."

-

"Youth be d-d!" said the mild man, in the surliest of tones, and with a total change of manner, as his new customer quitted the shop. "I say, Jemes," shouted this double-faced Janus of the Temple of Fashion, "Jemes, that Raffleton's been and got rusticated at last. I knew he would before long. You see and get the money for his lodgings out of him this blessed day, and make him give me a note of hand, payable at three months, for his tailor's bill, or else I'll put him in the Vice-Chancellor's Court before he goes, and keep him there all the Long Vacation, tell him."

Shortly after Eden's departure from the " Temple of Fashion,"

he was joined in his rooms by Mr. Richardson Lane, who had stopped at Raffleton's to see the champagne out.

"That Raffleton," said he, "is a most extraordinary fellow." "Yes, he is," said Eden. "And you're something in the same way," he thought.

"What on earth do you think he's going to do before he goes?" pursued his friend.

"I'm sure I haven't the faintest idea," was the answer - and the truth.

"Soon after you left us," said Mr. Lane, "his landlord, Walrus-you 've seen Walrus, perhaps?"

"I have," replied Eden; and a vision of the "quiet or gentlemanly" suit that was to be, rose up in judgment before him as he said so.

66

Well," said his friend, "well Walrus took it into his head to send up his compliments and his bill to Raffleton, and said he was going to be paid, or some such nonsense-which, of course, our friend seemed to think was a fiction. Well, Walrus came up himself, got rather savage, and began to talk about the Vice-Chancellor's Court, and so on. Raffleton's conduct was beautiful; an angel couldn't have behaved better. 'Mr. Walrus,' said he, will you take a glass of champagne to begin with?"

"No, sir,' said the infuriated Walrus, 'I will not take a glass of champagne to begin with. I want my money - that's all about it."

“Mr. Walrus,' said Raffleton, don't let us quarrel. I am about, as you see, to do a little "Future in rus," -as the schoolboy said when he got to the last but one of the Latin participles.'

"I don't want any of your jokes,' said the monster, 'I want my money, or a note of hand.'

"Well, Mr. Walrus,' said our friend; of course, if you must have the note of hand, you must. At three months, you

say?'

"The mercenary monster assented.

"You shall have it,' said Raffleton, who had evidently got some scheme into his head. 'Give it me now, and I'll sign it. Now, will you take a glass of champagne?'

"The mollified Walrus took the wine, and drank it.

"Walrus,' said our friend,- Walrus, you are a trump! "The trump looked as if he was about to deny the cha

racter.

"You are,' said Raffleton, you know you are. Now I know I behaved very rudely to you on Saturday night, and I should like to make you some amends. I'll tell you what it is. To-morrow is the terminal jubilee of "The Brothers," a club of which I am president, and I've engaged to dine at Nuneham with them, and so start by the mail afterwards. Now, if you

at

like to come down and dine with us I can take a friend Nuneham,-house-boat, and so on, you know-why, the club will be very glad to see you, that's all. Eh? what do you say?'

"The Walrus," said Mr. Lane," was in such a good humour at getting his promissory note, that he assented immediately. Now, I know our friend means to make a fool of him somehow; but how he wouldn't say. All I know is, there's sure to be some fun or other; and, if you like to come and meet the Walrus, each member can take a friend, and you shall dine with

me."

It is needless to say that Eden accepted Mr. Richardson Lane's invitation for the following day; having conceived a violent curiosity to be made acquainted with the nature of the plot which it was too evident had been formed against the unsuspecting Walrus, and, at the same time, to become a witness of the proceedings of a club so original as one boasting "The Brothers" for its name, Mr. John Raffleton for its president, and Mr. Richardson Lane for one of its members, could not possibly fail to prove.

At the appointed hour, our hero was carried off by Mr. Richardson Lane to the scene of embarkation for Nuneham. On their arrival at the river side, they found the barge belonging to Messrs. Davis and King already thronged with a large assembly of "Brothers," some smoking, some stepping first out of the barge into the house-boat, and then back again out of the house-boat into the barge; some making very particular inquiries concerning the quantity of champagne ordered, and others following their example respecting the number of quarts of ice; all, however, behaving in the most fraternal manner, and all clad alike in the full uniform of the club, with white hats, white trowsers, white waistcoats, and elegant buttons to their light green coats, with the delicately chased initials of the "Brothers' Club" in deep relief upon their surface. In the centre stood Raffleton, exhorting and imploring everybody to get into the house-boat, which was a capital imitation of the children's pictures of Noah's Ark, and about to be manned by almost as miscellaneous and extraordinary a crew, as soon as they possibly could; and close to him appeared a mild, benevolent-looking individual, whom, in spite of the total alteration of costume which he had adopted, Eden had no difficulty in recognising as the illustrious proprietor of the Hierokosmion.

The theory on dress with which the mild man had favoured Eden on the preceding day had certainly been reduced to practice on the present occasion, in the adornment of the theorist's own proper person. The "quiet, or gentlemanly" suit of black had been replaced by a most "romantic, or ultra-gorgeous blue checked shirt, with a picturesque and nautically-knotted neckcloth; a blue jacket, with fancy buttons representing a dolphin in the act of swallowing an anchor, which seemed uncom

monly likely to choke him; a pair of voluminous white trowsers, and blue ribbed silk stockings, terminating in what might, at first sight, have been taken for two small and shining patches of black sticking-plaster, but which in reality were pumps, with an enormous pair of horns to them, which looked a great deal more like pump-handles than pump-strings.

In short, Mr. Walrus had done it, and he was fully aware of the circumstance. Meanwhile Raffleton kept alternately treading on the patches of sticking-plaster, and stirring him up with a boat-hook, to make him lay aside his benevolent and solemn air, and look what he called " lively." After which he would turn to another tall, stout, jolly-looking personage, who was the crack hatter and mercer of Oxford, and had been asked, as well for his own convivial qualities, as to keep the proprietor of the Hierokosmion in countenance, and inquire with a grave air "if he did not think Walrus was quite the sailor?” And then the mercer would acquiesce, and the proprietor of the Hierokosmion would lay his hand upon his heart, look more benevolent than ever, and say it was the least he could do upon such an occasion as the present.

Just before the house-boat was about to be put in motion by two antique animals meant for horses, and attached (with a boy) to the other end of a chain extending from the boat itself, Raffleton returned from a private conference which he had been holding for the last five minutes with Mr. King, the proprietor of the various craft destined to convey the "Brothers" and their fortunes on their expedition.

"I think," said Raffleton, " upon consideration, that the dinner and the champagne, and all that, will be safer with me than with you. You shall all go in the house-boat, and I'll go on with the eatables in a four-oar. Let me see who is there will come with me? Eden, you 're light, you shall steer; I'll look after the provisions and the crew must be Duffil, Dean,—yes, and Ravelall," (here he winked at the mercer, who returned it) -"and-ah, to be sure-and Walrus for bow-oar. Yes."

The proprietor of the Hierokosmion began to say that he wasn't much of a hand at pulling, but was instantly cut short. "Not pull!" said Raffleton, with an expression of supreme incredulity. "Do you mean for one moment to tell me that that shirt, and those trowsers, and those pumps," (here he trod heavily upon the last-mentioned articles,)" and those stockings, haven't been used to pulling all their lives? Oh ! come-that's too good. Come along-in with you-none of your modesty-eh? Not pull !-that's capital. Come along!'

The unfortunate man was immediately bundled into the boat by Ravelall, the mercer, who seemed to have received private orders to make him as miserable as possible; and away went the four-oar, Eden steering, and Raffleton sitting on six dozen of champagne and a portable ice-house in the bows, and, as he