"I  should  have  liked  also  to  have  tha«ked  your  friend  for
his  hospitality,"  Mr.  Winter  went  on.  "  I  understood  my
daughter  to  say  he  was  here."

"  Yes,  he  was  here  just  now,"  said  Tom ;  "  he  must  be  below,
I  think."

"  What,  that  good  Mr.  Hardy  ?  "  said  Mary,  who  was  looking
out  of  the  window  ;  "  there  he  is  in  the  street.  He  has  just
helped  Hopkins  into  the  rumble,  and  handed  her  things  to  her
as  if  she  were  a  duchess.  She  has  been  so  cross  all  the  morn-
ing, and  now  she  looks  quite  gracious."

"Then,  I  think,  papa,  we  had  better  start."

"  Let  me  give  you  an  arm  downstairs,  uncle,"  said  Tom  ;
and  so  he  helped  his  uncle  down  to  the  carriage,  the  two  young
ladies  following  behind,  and  the  landlord  standing  with  ob-
sequious bows  at  his  shop  door  as  if  he  had  never  made  an
overcharge  in  his  life.
While  Mr.  Winter  was  making  his  acknowledgments  to
Hardy  and  being  helped  by  him  into  the  most  comfortable
seat  in  the  carriage,  Tom  was  making  tender  adieus  to  the  two
young  ladies  behind,  and  even  succeeded  in  keeping  a  rose-
bud which  Mary  was  carrying  when  they  took  their  seats.
She  parted  from  it  half -laughingly,  and  the  post-boy  cracked


S12  TOM   BBOWN    AT    OXFOBD.
hiB  wtip  and  the  barouche  went  lumbering  along  High  Street.
Hardy  and  Tom  watched  it  until  it  turned  down  St.  Aldates
toward  Folly  bridge,  the  latter  waving  his  hand  as  it  disap-
peared, and  then  they  turned  and  strolled  slowly  away  side
by  side  in  silence.  The  sight  of  all  the  other  departures  in-
creased the  uncomfortable,  unsatisfied  feeling  which  that  of
hjs  own  relatives  had  already  produced  in  Tom's  mind.
