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ORVILLE COLLEGE.
A STORY.


BY
MRS. HENRY WOOD,
AUTHOR OF "EAST LYNNE," "THE CHANNINGS," ETC.


_COPYRIGHT EDITION_.




LEIPZIG
BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ
1861

_The Right of Translation is reserved_.






CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

        I. In the Plantation.
       II. The New Boy.
      III. Hard and Obstinate as Nails.
       IV. Sir Simon Orville's Offered Reward.
        V. Mother Butter's Lodgings.
       VI. Mr. Gall abroad.
      VII. Mr. Lamb improves his Mind in Private.
     VIII. A Loss.
       IX. Christmas Day.
        X. A Man in a Blaze.
       XI. Only the Heat!
      XII. In the Shop in Oxford Street.
     XIII. If the Boys had but seen!
      XIV. Over the Water.
       XV. Dick's Bath.
      XVI. The Duel.
     XVII. Mr. Leek in Convulsions.
    XVIII. Told at Last.
      XIX. A Visitor for Sir Simon.
       XX. As if Ill Luck followed him.
      XXI. The Outbreak.
     XXII. Before the Examiners.
    XXIII. Falling from a Pinnacle.
     XXIV. In the Quadrangle.
      XXV. Very Peacefully.
     XXVI. The End.






ORVILLE COLLEGE.




CHAPTER I.
In the Plantation.


The glowing sunset of a September evening was shining on the fair
grounds around Orville College, lighting up the scene of stir and
bustle invariably presented on the return of the boys to their studies
after the periodical holidays. A large, comfortable-looking, and very
irregular building was this college. But a moderate-sized house
originally, it had been added to here, and enlarged there, and raised
yonder, at different times as necessity required, and with regard to
convenience only, not to uniformity of architecture. The whole was of
red brick, save the little chapel jutting out at one end; _that_ was
of white brick, with black divisional strokes, as if the architect had
a mind to make some distinction by way of reverence. The Head Master's
house faced the lawn and the wide gravel carriage-drive that encircled
it; the school apartments, ending in the chapel, were built on the
house's left; the sleeping-rooms and domestic offices were on its
right. It was only a private college--in fact, a school--founded many
years ago by a Dr. Orville, and called after him; but it gradually
became renowned in the world, and was now of the very first order of
private colleges.

Situated near London, in the large and unoccupied tracts of land lying
between the north and the west districts, when the college was first
erected, nothing could be seen near it but green fields. It was in a
degree isolated still, but time had wrought its natural changes; a few
gentlemen's houses had grown up around, and a colony of small shops
came with them. The latest improvement, or innovation, whichever you
like to call it, had been a little brick railway station, and the
rushing, thundering trains, which seemed to be always passing, would
occasionally condescend to halt, and pick up or set down the Orville
travellers. In want of a name, when the houses spoken of began to
spring up, it had called itself Orville Green--which was as good a
name for the little suburb as any other.

Dr. Brabazon, the head master, stood at the door to receive his coming
guests. It had been more consistent possibly with the reserve and
dignity of a head master, to have ensconced himself in a state-chair
within the walls of his drawing-room or library, and given the boys a
gracious bow as each introduced himself. Not so the doctor. He was the
most simple-mannered man in the world--as these large-hearted and
large-minded men are apt to be,--and he stood at the hall door, or
went to it perpetually, with a hearty smile and outstretched hands for
each fresh arrival. A portly, genial man he, of near sixty years, with
an upright line of secret care on his brow that sat ill upon it, as if
it had no business there.

The boys on this occasion came up, as was usual, to the front, or
doctor's entrance; not to their own entrance near the chapel. The
number of students altogether did not exceed a hundred. About forty of
these were resident at the head master's; the rest--or nearly the
rest--were accommodated at the houses of other of the masters, and a
very few--eight or ten at the most--attended as outdoor pupils, their
friends living near. No difference whatever was made in the education,
but these last were somewhat looked down upon by the rest of the boys.
They arrived variously; some driven from town in their fathers'
handsome carriages, some in cabs, some used the new rail and walked
from thence, some had come by omnibus. Dr. Brabazon received all
alike, with the same genial smile, the same cordial grasp of the hand.
He liked all to make their appearance on the eve of school, that the
roll might be written and called: the actual business beginning on the
morrow.

A pair of beautiful long-tailed ponies, drawing a low four-wheeled
open carriage, came round the gravel sweep with a quiet dash. The
driver was a well-grown youth, who had entered his eighteenth year. He
had high, prominent features of an aquiline cast, and large sleepy
blue eyes: a handsome face, certainly, but spoilt by its look of
pride. His attention during his short drive--for they had not come
far--had been absorbed by his ponies and by his own self-importance as
he drove them. It was one of the senior boys, Albert Loftus. By his
side sat another of the seniors, a cousin, Raymond Trace, a
quiet-looking youth of no particular complexion, and his light eyes
rather sunk