From the barges they turned aside and followed the windings of the Cherwell.

The clergyman did most of the talking; but now and then the old gentleman in the velvet cap interposed a question about the church at home, its architecture, the materials it was built of, and so forth; or about Taffy's own work, his carpentry, his apprenticeship with Mendarva the Smith.
And to all these questions the boy found himself replying with an ease which astonished him.
Suddenly the old clergyman said, "There is your College!" And unperceived by Taffy a pair of kindly eyes watched his own as they met the first vision of that lovely tower rising above the trees and (so like a thing of life it seemed) lifting its pinnacles exultantly into the blue heaven.
"Well ?" All three had come to a halt.

The boy turned, blushing furiously.
"This is the best of all, sir." "Boy," said old Velvet-cap, "do you know the meaning of 'edification'?
There stands your lesson for four years to come, if you can learn it in that time.

Do you think it easy?
Come and see how it has been learnt by men who have spent their lives face to face with it." They crossed the street by Magdalen bridge, and passed under Pugin's gateway, by the Chapel door and into the famous cloisters.

All was quiet here; so quiet that even the voices of the sparrows chattering in the ivy seemed but a part of the silence.