She would not be dull; she could drive about and see the country, and to that end took her own carriage to Oxford, the "fly" which had been set up two years before.

John had been rather sarcastic about its genteel appearance.

"No one," he said, "would sit down to draw the form of it." However, she and Mary drove to Oxford, and reckoned that it would only mean fifteen months' absence from home altogether, great part of which deserted papa would spend in travelling.
John went into residence in Peckwater.

At first he spent every evening with his mother and went to bed, as Mr.Dale had told him, at ten.

After a few days Professor Powell asked him to a musical evening; he excused himself, and explained why.