MRS. PROUDIE'S RECEPTION—CONCLUDED.
as though he were some unearthly apparition; so also did two or three prebendaries and minor canons. The archdeacon laughed.
"The German professors are men of learning," said Mr. Harding, "but"
"German professors!" groaned out the chancellor, as though his nervous system had received a shock which nothing but a week of Oxford air could cure.
"Yes," continued Ethelbert; not at all understanding why a German professor should be contemptible in the eyes of an Oxford don. "Not but what the name is best earned at Oxford. In Germany the professors do teach; at Oxford, I believe, they only profess to do so, and sometimes not even that. You'll have those universities of yours about your ears soon, if you don't consent to take a lesson from Germany."
There was no answering this. Dignified clergymen of sixty years of age could not condescend to discuss such a matter with a young man with such clothes and such a beard.
"Have you got good water out at Plumstead, Mr. Archdeacon?" said the bishop by way of changing the conversation.
"Pretty good," said Dr. Grantly.
"But by no means so good as his wine, my lord," said a witty minor canon.
"Nor so generally used," said another; "that is, for inward application."
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the bishop, "a good cellar of wine is a very comfortable thing in a house."
"Your German professors, sir, prefer beer, I believe," said the sarcastic little meagre prebendary.
"They don't think much of either," said Ethelbert; "and that perhaps accounts for their superiority. Now the Jewish professor"
The insult was becoming too deep for the spirit of Oxford to endure, so the archdeacon walked off one way and the chancellor another, followed by their disciples, and the bishop and the young reformer were left together on the hearthrug.
"I was a Jew once myself," began Bertie.
The bishop was determined not to stand another examina-
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