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both the
universities out and a stunning race.' Oh, well, there is an epithet. One
would think thunder was going to race lightning, instead of Oxford
Cambridge."
"'--If you can come, please write, and I will get you nice lodgings; I
will not let you go to a noisy inn. Love to Julia and no end of kisses to
my pretty mamma. --From your affectionate Son,
"'EDWARD DODD.'"
They wrote off a cordial assent, and reached Henley in time to see the
dullest town in Europe; and also to see it turn one of the gayest in an
hour or two; so impetuously came both the universities pouring into
it--in all known vehicles that could go their pace--by land and water.

CHAPTER I
IT was a bright hot day in June. Mrs. Dodd and Julia sat half reclining,
with their parasols up, in an open carriage, by the brink of the Thames
at one of its loveliest bends.
About a furlong up stream a silvery stone bridge, just mellowed by
time, spanned the river with many fair arches. Through these the
coming river peeped sparkling a long way above, then came
meandering and shining down; loitered cool and sombre under the dark
vaults, then glistened on again crookedly to the spot where sat its two
fairest visitors that day; but at that very point flung off its serpentine
habits, and shot straight away in a broad stream of scintillating water a
mile long, down to an island in mid-stream: a little fairy island with old
trees, and a white temple. To curl round this fairy isle the broad current
parted, and both silver streams turned purple in the shade of the grove;
then winded and melted from the sight.
This noble and rare passage of the silvery Thames was the Henley
racecourse. The starting-place was down at the island, and the goal was
up at a point in the river below the bridge, but above the bend where
Mrs. Dodd and Julia sat, unruffled by the racing, and enjoying
luxuriously the glorious stream, the mellow bridge crowded with
carriages--whose fair occupants stretched a broad band of bright colour
above the dark figures clustering on the battlements--and the green
meadows opposite with the motley crowd streaming up and down.
Nor was that sense, which seems especially keen and delicate in
women, left unregaled in the general bounty of the time. The green
meadows on the opposite bank, and the gardens at the back of our fair
friends, flung their sweet fresh odours at their liquid benefactor gliding
by; and the sun himself seemed to burn perfumes, and the air to scatter
them, over the motley merry crowd, that bright, hot, smiling, airy day
in June.
Thus tuned to gentle enjoyment, the fair mother and her lovely
daughter leaned back in a delicious languor proper to their sex, and

eyed with unflagging though demure interest, and furtive curiosity, the
wealth of youth, beauty, stature, agility, gaiety, and good temper, the
two great universities had poured out upon those obscure banks; all
dressed in neat but easy-fitting clothes, cut in the height of' the fashion;
or else in jerseys white or striped, and flannel trousers, and straw hats,
or cloth caps of bright and various hues; betting, strolling, laughing,
chaffing, larking, and whirling stunted bludgeons at Aunt Sally.
But as for the sport itself they were there to see, the center of all these
bright accessories, "The Racing," my ladies did not understand it, nor
try, nor care a hook-and-eye about it. But this mild dignified
indifference to the main event received a shock at 2 p. m.: for then the
first heat for the cup came on, and Edward was in it. So then Racing
became all in a moment a most interesting pastime--an appendage to
Loving. He left to join his crew. And, soon after, the Exeter glided
down the river before their eyes, with the beloved one rowing quietly in
it: his jersey revealed not only the working power of his arms, as
sunburnt below the elbow as a gipsy's, and as corded above as a
blacksmith's, but also the play of the great muscles across his broad and
deeply indented chest: his oar entered the water smoothly, gripped it
severely, then came out clean, and feathered clear and tunably on the
ringing rowlock: the boat jumped and then glided, at each neat, easy,
powerful stroke. "Oh, how beautiful and strong he is!" cried Julia. "I
had no idea.
Presently the competitor for this heat came down: the Cambridge boat,
rowed by a fine crew in broad-striped jerseys. "Oh, dear " said Julia,
"they are odious and strong in this boat too. I wish I was in it--with a
gimlet; he should win, poor boy."
Which corkscrew staircase to Honour being inaccessible,