190 THE CHERRY-STONES.

the result. Now we will begin at once.
Open your books at the hundred and
thirtieth line of the first Iliad. Charles
Warbeck, construe the first passage.”
The examination began, and Mertoun’s
attention was soon fully absorbed. He
had risen that morning, from his broken
and feverish sleep, unrefreshed, in mind
and body; and he had been during the
morning even more peevish and fretful
than on the previous day. To all the
congratulations and kind wishes of his
friends, on the return of his birth-day,
he had returned cold and ungracious an-
swers; and to any allusions to the ap-
proaching examinations, and predictions
of his probable success, he replied yet
more crossly, until, at last, his partisans
had dropped off, one by one, and had
left him to digest his ill-humour by him-