many I have no doubt. Probably only Mrs. Widesworth and the
undergraduates were wholly undisturbed by them. Yet, in spite of this
secret uneasiness, there was common to the company a stiff recognition
of its own virtue, which seemed to impart a certain queer rigidity to
the bodily presence of the guests. Dr. Dastick, for the first and only
time in my remembrance, appeared with his trousers bound with straps to
the bottoms of his boots. Colonel Prowley had thrust his neck into a
stock of extraordinary stiffness, which seemed to proceed from some
antique coat-of-mail worn beneath the waistcoat. The collar and cuffs of
Miss Prowley were wonderful in their dimensions, and fairly creaked with
the starch. The clergyman, indeed, wore his dress and manners in relaxed
and even slouchy fashion; but this seemed not due to lightness of
heart, but only to weariness of mind. I knew that something had caused
him to feel acutely the limitations of his office. One might attribute
such feelings to the bass-viol player in an orchestra, who, in whatever
whirl of harmony, is permitted to scrape out only a few gruff notes. But
there was dear Mrs. Widesworth, so deliciously drugged by the anodynes
of Authority that she could shake the chains of custom till they jingled
like sleigh-bells.

"Come, come," said this good lady; "why, you all seem to be following
the advice of my grandfather Twynintuft,--which was, to let the mind
muddle after dinner. He thought it strengthened the voice,--gave it
_timber_, as he called it. But, ah, dear! in these days so little
attention is paid to elocution that it's of no consequence whatever!"

"I have endeavored, Madam," said Professor Owlsdarck, with great
precision of utterance, "I have endeavored to impress upon my scholars
that Socratic wisdom which condemned books as silent: a testimony, as I
take it, of great importance to those who would perfect the instrument