a certain Company, which held rule in a
British colony of considerable importance. His interest in this colony
had originated at the time when he was gaining vigour and enlarging his
experience in world-wide travel; he enjoyed the sense of power, and his
voice did not lack weight at the Board of the Company in question. He
had all manner of talents and pursuits. Knowledge--the only kind of
knowledge he cared for, that of practical things, things alive in the
world of to-day--seemed to come to him without any effort on his part.
A new invention concealed no mysteries from him; he looked into it;
understood, calculated its scope. A strange piece of news from any part
of the world found him unsurprised, explanatory. He liked mathematics,
and was wont to say jocosely that an abstract computation had a fine
moral affect, favouring unselfishness. Music was one of his foibles; he
learnt an instrument with wonderful facility, and, up to a certain
point, played well. For poetry, though as a rule he disguised the fact,
he had a strong distaste; once, when aged about twenty, he startled his
father by observing that "In Memoriam" seemed to him a shocking
instance of wasted energy; he would undertake to compress the whole
significance of each section, with its laborious rhymings, into two or
three lines of good clear prose. Naturally the young man had undergone
no sentimental troubles; he had not yet talked of marrying, and cared
only for the society of mature women who took common-sense views of
life. His religion was the British Empire; his saints, the men who had
made it; his prophets, the politicians and publicists who held most
firmly the Imperial tone.

Where Arnold Jacks was in company, there could be no dullness. Alone
with his host and hostess, Otway would have found the occasion rather
solemn, and have wished it over, but Arnold's melodious voice, his
sprightly discussion and anecdotage, his frequent laughter, charmed the
guest into self-oblivion.

"You are no doubt a Home Ruler, Mr. Otway," observed Arnold, soon after
they were seated.

"Yes, I am," answered Piers cheerily. "You too, I hope?"

"Why, yes. I would grant Home Rule of the completest description, and I
would let it run its natural course for--shall we say five years? When
the state of Ireland had become intolerable to herself and dangerous to
this adjacent island, I would send over dragoons. And," he added
quietly, crumbling his bread, "the question would