At this speech a loud murmur was heard in my uncle's party, which
gradually spread round the hall. I again looked up: my mother's face
was averted; that of the Abbe was impenetrable; but I saw my uncle
wiping his eyes, and felt a strange emotion creeping into my own, I
turned hastily away, and presented my paper; the head master received
it, and, putting it aside, proceeded to the verbal examination.
Conscious of the parts in which Gerald was likely to fail, I had paid
especial attention to the minutiae of scholarship, and my forethought
stood me in good stead at the present moment. My trial ceased; my last
paper was read. I bowed, and retired to the other end of the hall. I
was not so popular as Gerald; a crowd was assembled round him, but I
stood alone. As I leaned against a column, with folded arms, and a
countenance which I felt betrayed little of my internal emotions, my eye
caught Gerald's. He was very pale, and I could see that his hand
trembled. Despite of our enmity, I felt for him. The worst passions
are softened by triumph, and I foresaw that mine was at hand.

The whole examination was over. Every boy had passed it. The masters
retired for a moment; they reappeared and reseated themselves. The
first sound I heard was that of my own name. I was the victor of the
day: I was more; I was one hundred marks before my brother. My head
swam round; my breath forsook me. Since then I have been placed in many
trials of life, and had many triumphs; but never was I so overcome as at
that moment. I left the hall; I scarcely listened to the applauses with
which it rang. I hurried to my own chamber, and threw myself on the bed
in a delirium of intoxicated feeling, which had in it more of rapture
than anything but the gratification of first love or first vanity can
bestow.