acts? Well, I don't."

He was enthusiastic; he was perhaps very foolish; but the brother who
was older had learned at least this, that it does not follow that a man
is in the wrong because he can give no wiser reason for his course than
"I take this way because I will take it."

"Disarm yourself, old fellow," he said. "I am not going to try to
dissuade you. I tried that last year, and I didn't succeed; and if I had
promise of success now, I wouldn't try. Life's a fearful thing, just
because, when we shut our eyes to what is right in the morning, at noon
it's not given us to see the difference between black and white, unless
our eyes get washed with the right sort of tears."

Alec leaned his head out of the window; he felt that his brother was
making a muff of himself, and did not like it.

"If you see this thing clearly," Robert continued, "I say, go ahead and
do it; but I want you just to see the whole of it. According to you, I
am on the wrong track; but I have got far along it, and now I have other
people to consider. It seems a pity, when there are only two of us in
the world, that we should have to put half the world between us. We used
to have the name, at least of being attached." He stopped to find the
thread, it was a disconnected speech for him to formulate. He had put
his arm under his head now, and was looking round at his brother. "I
have never misrepresented anything. For the matter of that, the man who
had most to do with putting me in my berth here, knew all that there was
to be known about my father. He didn't publish the matter, for the sake
of the school; and when I had taken the school, I couldn't publish it
either. All the world was free to inquire, but as far as I know, no one
has done so; and I have let the sleeping dog lie."

"I never said you ought to have been more talkative. It's not my
business."

"The position you take makes it appear that I am in a false position.
Give me time to get about again. I ought at least to be more frank with
my personal friends. Wait till I have opportunity to speak myself--that
is all I ask of you. After that do what you will; but I think it only
right to tell you that if you set up shop here, or near here, I should
resign my place in this college."

"I'm not going to stay here. I told you I see that won't work."

"Don't be hasty. As I said, it's hard lines if this must separate us. I
can keep the church. They can't be particular about my status there,
b