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Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green by Bede, Cuthbert, 1827-1889
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A word from our supporters: File extension PLN | [218 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]privately, and, when the day (April 1) on which the poems had to be sent in, had come, he had watched his opportunity, and secretly dropped through the wired slit in the door of the registrar's office at the Clarendon, a manuscript poem, distinguished by the motto:- And the sound of a voice that is still." We may be quite sure that there was great rejoicing at the Manor Green and the Rectory, when the news arrived of the success of Charles Larkyns and Mr. Verdant Green. ________________CHAPTER XII.MR. VERDANT GREEN AND HIS FRIENDS ENJOY THE COMMEMORATION.THE Commemoration had come; and, among the people who were drawn to the sight from all parts of the country, the Warwickshire coach landed in Oxford our friends Mr. Green, his two eldest daughters, and the Rector - for all of whom Charles Larkyns had secured very comfortable lodgings in Oriel Street. The weather was of the finest; and the beautiful city of colleges looked at its best. While the Rector met with old friends, and heard his son's praises, and renewed his acquaintance with his old haunts of study, Mr. Green again lionized Oxford in a much more comfortable and satisfactory manner than he had previously done at the heels of a professional guide. As for the young ladies, they were charmed with everything; for they had never before been in a University town, and all things had the fascination of novelty. Great were the luncheons held in Mr. Verdant Green's and Charles Larkyns' rooms; musical was the laughter that floated merrily through the grave old quads of Brazenface; happy were the two hearts that held converse with each other in those cool cloisters and shady gardens. How a few flounces and bright girlish smiles can change the aspect of the sternest homes of knowledge! How sunlight can be brought into the gloomiest nooks of learning by the beams that irradiate happy girlish faces, where the light of love and truth shines out clear and joyous! How the appearance of the Commemoration week is influenced in a way thus described by one of Oxonia's poets:- Fairer scholars, pleasure-beaming, float amid the classic throng. Blither laughter's ringing music fills the haunts of men awhile, And the sternest priests of knowledge blush beneath a maiden's smile. [AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 219]Hush'd to hear fantastic whispers murmur'd from a pedant's lips. Oh, believe it, throbbing pulses flutter under folds of starch, And the Dons are human-hearted if the ladies' smiles be arch." |