When at length the time came
for him to go to Emmanuel, where he was to sleep in his new rooms, his
father came with him to the gates and saw him safe into college; a few
minutes more and he found himself alone in a room for which he had a
latchkey.
From this time he dated many days which, if not quite unclouded,
were upon the whole very happy ones. I need not, however, describe
them, as the life of a quiet, steady-going undergraduate has been told
in a score of novels better than I can tell it. Some of Ernest's
schoolfellows came up to Cambridge at the same time a. himself, and
with these he continued on friendly terms during the whole of his
college career. Other schoolfellows were only a year or two his
seniors; these called on him, and he thus made a sufficiently
favourable entree into college life. A straightforwardness of
character that was stamped upon his face, a love of humour, and a
temper which was more easily appeased than ruffled made up for some
awkwardness and want of savoir faire. He soon became a not unpopular
member of the best set of his year, and though neither capable of
becoming, nor aspiring to become, a leader, was admitted by the
leaders as among their nearer hangers-on.
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