sented the University in the sports, one rowed in the Eight at Putney, and although our cricket Eleven was not particularly strong, still we defeated the two other Colleges, both larger than our own, situated in this street. Possibly," he continued rather hurriedly, as he noted that Mr. Cope was meditating another interpolation, "we may not do so well this year, as several good men have gone down, but we hope that "

"There are as good fish in the sea." "Well, yes, yes. But-my time is rather precious, Mr. Cope, and I have two very important engagements this afternoon-what I would suggest to you is that you should go to some other College, which is not-eh-quite so high in its aims, and which might be ready to assist you on the lines you propose; such a College, I would say, as Wadham or Worcester. I daresay you would find several quite nice young men in either of them. Or perhaps one of the Halls might suit you even better. Or, again, and I really think that this would be the best course of all, you might talk over your views with one of the Delegates of the unattached students, who might perhaps offer you the facilities you require. And now I must really bid you good afternoon, Mr. Cope. Please to remember me kindly to your Rector, and tell him how gladly I would have accepted his recommendation had I been able to see my way to it," and, thus speaking, the Dean arose from his chair with the evident intention of ushering John Cope to the door. Not so lightly, however, was he destined to get rid of his visitor. For Mr. Cope, who had shown various signs of impatience during the Dean's peroration, now developed a new line of attack.

"Have those unattached men got a cricket-ground? I mean, is there a chance of decent cricket there-sir?"

This was a question which the Dean was wholly unprepared to answer. To this conservative mind that comparatively modern importation, the unattached student, appealed as an individual, not perhaps necessarily objectionable in himself, but at any rate as beyond the pale of University civilization, ranking indeed as barbarian to Greek, or as Helot to free-born Spartan.

"I know nothing whatever about them," he snapped; "but," and here he looked at the young man with more interest than before, "are you a cricketer, Mr. Cope?"

"Well, yes, I've played-a lot at times."

"Where, may I inquire?" asked the Dean, who having now worked his way to the door, stood for a moment with his hand resting on the handle.

"For the Colony against the M. C. C. lot four years ago, and since I came home once or twice for the County."

"Played for your County!" exclaimed the Dean, as he relinquished his grasp on the door-handle and stared hard at the visitor. "When and where, may I ask? I do not seem to remember your name."

"Perhaps not; I was Lister, thensir. I have only been Cope since my uncle died and I had to take his name."

"Lister!" exclaimed the Dean, and with that he took one stride to his writing-table, and, picking up the card which his scout had brought up on the visitor's arrival, wiped his spectacles preparatory to examining it.

"John L. Cope," he muttered to himself, "and the L. is Lister," and then for a full half-minute he continued to stare hard alternately at the card and its original owner, by way, it may be presumed, of verifying the connection between the one and the other. The process of identification apparently concluded to his satisfaction, the Dean

next walked to the farther end of the room and carefully closed the bedroom door, and then, as though by way of making security doubly secure and cutting off from his visitor any chance of premature escape, he marched off into the anteroom which led to his more private apartments and "sported his oak."

"Do you mean to tell me, Mr.-eheh-Cope," addressing his visitor, who, having remained standing with a view to departure, was not a little mystified over the series of precautions, "that you are the Lister, the googly bowler?"

"Well, I was Lister, and I do bowl googlies."

"But did you," inquired the Dean with some severity,-"did you take eight Middlesex wickets for forty runs?"

"Well, yes, I did. A fluke, of course. They got themselves out. Besides, it was forty-three runs."

"Dear me!" exclaimed the Dean. "This is extremely interesting. Now, do tell me, my dear fellow," and forgetting all about the important engagements, real or imaginary, he seized Cope by the arm and literally forced him into a chair.

"Now tell me something about your batting."

"I can hit a bit. I" and John Cope hesitated.

"You-?"

"Well, I once got seventy against M. C. C. in Australia."

"Dear me! That is very interesting indeed," quoth the Dean, and following that there was a long pause in the conversation, a pause employed by the Dean in ruminating, by John Cope in fidgeting in his chair and wondering whether, in view of his host's important engagements, it was not high time for him to be off. He had indeed half risen from his chair when the Dean, who had been gazing into the

fireplace in an attitude of deep abstraction, suddenly looked up.

"Keep your seat, please, Mr. Lis—I mean Cope. I shall not detain you long, but-" and here he temporarily reverted to the old explicit style, varied, however, by occasional queries put to his visitor and brief comments addressed to himself. "On more mature consideration of your case, a very peculiar case, of course, I have come to the conclusion that it will hardly be consonant with the spirit of this College to throw an obstacle in the way of what is after all a commendable ambition on your part to avail yourself, even for a short time, of the benefits of collegiate life with a view to filling more worthily the position which you are called upon to occupy in your county. By the way, you have not played for it latterly, have you?"

Mr. Cope briefly explained that in part his uncle's death and illness, and in part the absence of other amateurs, had been the cause of this abstention.

"They wanted me to captain the side sir. But it's dull work stopping in a hotel alone, and having only pros to talk to."

"Exactly, exactly," asserted the Dean, "the desire for companionship and intellectual conversation is most natural. Man is a social or gregarious animal, Mr.-eh-Cope, and, as a Roman writer remarked, like rejoices in like."

Here Mr. Cope rather imprudently interpolated that now and again on a cricket field one met "most awful bounders," and he even intimated that he had recently encountered an individual of that description who had claimed to have once played in the Oxford Eleven.

"Yes, yes, I have been told that such unfortunate mistakes have been made, but we will hope that history of that type will not repeat itself. However,

Mr. Cope Lister, I mean Mr. Lister Cope, I may say that under the ctrcumstances the College would be not disinclined to entertain your proposition. On certain conditions, that is. Of course we should expect you to conform with the College regulations in the matter of attending-oh! by the way, didn't you play against Yorkshire, too?"

The sudden transition seemed to puzzle Mr. Cope.

"College regulations in the matter of attending" he repeated slowly, and then, gathering from the Dean's face that he was expecting an answer to his last question, he admitted that he had played against Yorkshire.

"It wasn't quite my day out," he added. "I only got four-no, five wickets in the two innings. I stuck them up a bit, but catches did not go to hand. But I got a nice little knock in the second innings-thirty-four, most of them off two overs of Hirst."

at

"Did you really?" exclaimed the Dean. "But now we must not be irrelevant, Mr. Lis-eh, Cope! As to the College regulations. Attendance morning chapel in the first place. We expect our undergraduates to attend chapel at 8 A. M. four mornings in the week, and”

An interpolation from Mr. Cope.

"Oh, I really can't do that, it's so awfully early, and besides, I'm a Quaker," -and then, seeing that the Dean looked absolutely horror-struck, he proceeded to explain that his family had been of the Quaker persuasion from time immemorial, but that he himself, not being quite so confirmed a Quaker as his forefathers, had conceived it to be his duty as Squire of the parish to attend at least one service in Church on Sunday.

"Two, sometimes, but not often," he concluded.

"Indeed, that is very creditable to you, Mr.-eh-Cope, and I could wish

that all our landlords realized the great importance of setting a good example to their tenants and co-parishioners. It is satisfactory, too, to feel that notwithstanding your adoption of the creed of your forefathers you see nothing repugnant to your feelings in our very simple yet very beautiful ritual. So-by the way, did you bowl against the M. C. C. team in Australia?"

"I only had four overs, but I got the last two wickets-sir. Not with googlies, though, I was quite fast then, left-hand, but I damaged my shoulder in the winter playing football, and so I took to bowling right. It was a bit awkward at first, and-well, perhaps that's how I came to bowl googliessir."

"How very interesting!" exclaimed the Dean. "Yours is indeed a very unusual experience, Mr. Cope. Have you ever reverted to your left hand?"

"Sometimes. You can't bowl googlies for long at a spell, you knownot, at least, to do much good; and be sides, it rests you to bowl left-hand occasionally-sir."

"I can understand that," said the Dean; and he took off his spectacles and wiped them carefully with a view to making a more thorough survey of this young man, who, after so unpromising a start, was revealing himself as the possessor of so many excellences.

"And you are a football player?"

"Yes, I used to play half-back for the Colony, but I play three-quarter now. I'm a bit bigger and heavier now, faster too, I hope. I wasn't eighteen when I played for the Colony."

"Well now," said the Dean, after some consideration, "to return to the question of chapels. May I understand that you have no conscientious objections which would hinder your attendance in the College Chapel?"

"No, not exactly," replied Mr. Cope, -and he then proceeded to demonstrate to the best of his ability that those conscientions objections, which would undoubtedly inhibit his presence in chapel on week-day mornings, did not extend to Sunday attendance.

"You see," he concluded, "I always go on Sunday at home; the Rector says it is a good example, but you can't want me as an example."

And the Dean, who had by this time arrived at a stage of mind which might have induced him to secure this young paragon among athletes, had he even declared himself to be a Mormon, for St. Cyprian's, gracefully conceded the point.

"Well, yes, perhaps under the circumstances-for yours is certainly a peculiar case, Mr. Cope-the Sunday attendance will be sufficient. Then there are lectures-that is, courses of instruction with a view to the Examinations."

"As I'm not taking any Examinations I shan't want lectures, shall I?" suggested Mr. Cope.

"Well-er-perhaps not," rather dubiously. "And yet, Mr. Cope, it would be a pity to let your mind lie fallow for a whole year. Athleticism is a great resource, I grant, but you cannot pass a whole week or even a whole day in play. There are many subjects taught at a University which might be of incalculable benefit to you in the future. Let me think-Political Economy, for one. I am sure it would interest you to attend some good lectures on Political Economy."

"It might, or it might not-sir. But what is it?"

"It deals with the causes of the wealth of nations, the relations between demand and supply, and many other things really simple in themselves which would appeal at once to your common-sense. Now here, for example, is a very simple question, really

once

coming under the head of Political Economy, to which your common-sense would supply an answer at When I was staying in Cornwall last Spring I found that I could buy thirty eggs for a shilling, but here in Oxford I can only buy twelve. I asked myself the reason of this, and a very slight knowledge of Political Economy at once supplied the answer."

"More hens," ejaculated Mr. Cope.

"Well, yes," admitted the Dean, "I suppose there are. Curiously enough, that solution never occurred to me. I was thinking of the demand rather than of the supply. Things are cheapened by lack of demand, cost of transport-"

"Less thievish tradesmen," interpolated Mr. Cope.

"Possibly so," and with the feeling perhaps that he was not on quite the same lines with his visitor in the matter of Political Economy, the Dean then and there dropped the subject of Lectures and passed on to "Collections."

"There is one more point that I must ask you to pay attention to, Mr. Cope, the question of 'Collections,'-in other words, a sort of gathering of the undergraduates in our Hall on the last day of the term. There is a sort of informal examination, a few papers and so forth, but- -" and he hurried on to forestall the protest which was clearly imminent, "that would in no way affect yourself, your case being, as I have already said, peculiar. Still, our President is a very old man, Mr. Cope, and has his foibles-"

"Like my uncle," interpolated Mr. Cope.

"Yes, yes, just so; and he likes to see all the young men assembled on that day and to have a word with each of them

Another brief interruption from Mr. Cope.

"Oh, that will be all right, sir. I've

had a good training in talking to old gentlemen. My uncle-he was my great-uncle really-always said that I was the only fellow who could make him hear without a trumpet; he was as deaf as a post, and I daresay your old man is too. The best way is to let them yarn on themselves, and tell you about mail-coaches and sedanchairs and to pretend you like it."

"Quite so, Mr. Cope, quite so. I don't know that the President talks much about mail-coaches, but he likes to have a word or two with each of his young men. It is almost the only chance he has of seeing them."

"Poor old chap!" muttered Mr. Cope, and then louder: "I wouldn't mind going to sit with him a bit now and again. It cheers them up to have some one to swear at on their gouty days, at least, I know it did my uncle."

you to come into residence on the 29th of April, when our term begins. You'll make a point of playing for the College as often as you can, won't you? It would be a great feather in our cap if we beat those other two colleges again."

Whereupon John Cope, in his joy that the interview was successfully concluded, rather rashfully vowed that come weal or come woe those two matches should take precedence of any other engagement.

Having wished good-bye to the Dean with a truly Colonial grip of the hand, which made the Dean's fingers tingle for a good half-hour, John Cope was already half-way down the staircase when he found himself recalled to receive one more parting admonition.

"Just one more word, Mr. Cope. I want you to remember, in case you may wish to address any communication to the College, that our patron saint's name is spelt with a single p. You might perhaps find time to look up a little of his history; you will find it, no doubt, in the 'Lives of the Saints,' a most interesting work. But in any case only one p, if you please,

Unquestionably the news of the shooting down of a Muhamadan procession at Cawnpore, engaged in protesting, though riotously and tumultuously, against a "municipal regulation," has created a profound feeling of anxiety throughout England. The fact that the Muhamadans were killed while protesting against interference with a Muhamadan place of worship deepens the sense of uneasiness and Englishmen do not like to LIVING AGE VOL. LX. 3168

sorrow.

have British rule supported too obviously by bayonets; and they downright detest even a righteous necessity which calls for armed police. The fact that Indian Muhamadans have suffered, and that a grave agitation has arisen among the Moslem population, makes the affair all the more tragical and deplorable. We may be sure that the British magistrate who had actually to meet the outbreak of fanaticism and violence displayed the utmost