is time of night nobody was able to adduce any very conclusive
reason against letting Smithers alone, although Maurice Avery insisted
that men like him were very bad for the college.

Dawn was breaking when Michael strolled round Cloisters with Castleton,
determined to probe through the medium of Castleton's common sense and
Wykehamist notions the ethical and aesthetic rights of people like
Smithers to obtain the education Oxford was held to bestow impartially.

"After all, Oxford wasn't founded to provide an expensive three years of
idleness for the purpose of giving a social cachet to people like
Cuffe," Castleton pointed out.

"No, no," Michael agreed, "but no institution has ever yet remained true
to the principles of its founder. The Franciscans, for instance, or
Christianity itself. The point surely is not whether it has evolved into
something inherently worthless, but whether, however much it may have
departed from original intentions, it still serves a useful purpose in
the scheme of social order."

"Oh, I'm not grumbling at what Oxford is," Castleton went on. "I simply
suggest that the Smitherses have the right, being in a small minority,
to demand courtesy from the majority, and, after all, Oxford is serving
no purpose at all, if she cannot foster good manners in people who are
supposed to be born with a natural tendency toward good manners. I
should be the first to regret an Oxford with the Smitherses in the
majority, but I think that those Smitherses who have fought their way in
with considerable difficulty should not go down with the sense of hatred
which that poor solitary creature must surely feel against all of us."

Michael asked Castleton if he had ever talked to him.

"No, I'm afraid I haven't. I'm afraid I'm too lazy to do much more than
deplore theoretically these outbursts of rowdy superiority. Now, as I'm
beginning to talk almost as priggishly as a new sub-editor of The
Spectator might talk, to bed."

The birds were singing, as Michael walked back from escorting Castleton
to his rooms. St. Mary's tower against the sky opening like a flower
seemed to express for him a sudden aspiration of all life toward
immortal beauty. In this delicate hour of daybreak all social
distinctions, all prejudices and vulgarities became the base and
clogging memories of the night before. He felt a sudden guilt in
beholding this tranquil college under this tranquil dawn. It seemed,
spread out for his solitary vis