He was under no obligation to any one, unless it were to the Archdeacon for his pocket-money.
His father and his brother, doubtless with the best intentions, had made life more painful for him after his mother's death than they could have made it if she had been alive.

But Hurrell was gone, his father was in Devonshire, and he could do as he pleased.

He lived with the idle set in college; riding, boating, and playing tennis, frequenting wines and suppers.

From vicious excess his intellect and temperament preserved him.

Deep down in his nature there was a strong Puritan element, to which his senses were subdued.
Nevertheless, for two years he lived at Oxford in contented idleness, saying with Isaiah, and more literally than the prophet, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die." It was a wholly unreformed Oxford to which Froude came.