1S42 HIS FIRST SUCCESS 



19 



result was a sort of ophthalmia which kept me from reading at 

 night for months afterwards. 



The day of examination came, and as I went along the pas- 

 sage to go out I well remember dear Lizzie,* half in jest, half 

 in earnest, throwing her shoe after me, as she said, for luck. 

 She was alone, beside S., in the secret, and almost as anxious 

 as I was. How I reached the examination room I hardly know, 

 but I recollect finding myself at last with pen and ink and paper 

 before me and five other beings, all older than myself, at a long 

 table. We stared at one another like strange cats in a garret, 

 but at length the examiner (Ward) entered, and before each 

 was placed the paper of questions and sundry plants. I looked 

 at my questions, but for some moments could hardly hold my 

 pen, so extreme was my nervousness ; but when I once fairly 

 began, my ideas crowded upon me almost faster than I could 

 write them. And so we all sat, nothing heard but the scratching 

 of the pens and the occasional crackle of the examiner's Times 

 as he quietly looked over the news of the day. 



The examination began at eleven. At two they brought in 

 lunch. It was a good meal enough, but the circumstances were 

 not particularly favourable to enjoyment, so after a short delay 

 we resumed our work. It began to be evident between whom the 

 contest lay, and the others determined that I was one man's 

 competitor and Stocks -I- (he is now in the East India service) 

 the other. Scratch, scratch, scratch ! Four o'clock came, the 

 usual hour of closing the examination, but Stocks and I had not 

 half done, so with the consent of the others we petitioned for an 

 extension. The examiner was willing to let us go on as long as 

 we liked. Never did I see man write like Stocks ; one might 

 have taken him for an attorney's clerk writing for his dinner. 

 We went on. I had finished a little after eight, he went on till 

 near nine, and then we had tea and dispersed. 



Great were the greetings I received when I got home, where 

 my long absence had caused some anxiety. The decision would 

 not take place for some weeks, and many were the speculations 

 made as to the probabilities of success. I for my part managed 

 to forget all about it, and went on my ordinary avocations with- 

 out troubling myself more than I could possibly help about it. 



* His eldest sister, Mrs. Scott. 



f John Ellerton Stocks, M.D., London, distinguished himself as a 

 botanist in India. He travelled and collected in Beloochistan and 

 Scinde ; died 1854. 



