r
fragment of his studies. At about six he dozed fitfully for an hour,
and then came the knock at the door which summoned him from his bed to
the first day of his ordeal.

I would rather not dwell on those examination days, for I could tell, if
no one else could, that my master was really ill, and was only prevented
by sheer excitement from succumbing at any moment. As day by day passed
I could see the effort becoming more and more difficult. The nights
were worse than the days--sleepless, feverish, distracted. It was
evident this could not go on for long.

The last day of the examination arrived, and my master was in his usual
place in the Senate House. His pen flew swiftly all the morning along
the paper, and one by one, a triumphant tick was set against the printed
questions before him. I could see no one as well employed as he. Jim,
at a distant desk, was biting the end of his pen and looking up at the
ceiling; other men sat back in their seats and stared with knitted brows
at the paper before them; others buried their fingers in their hair and
looked the picture of despair. But still my master wrote on. It wanted
half an hour to the time of closing when he reached the last question on
the paper. I saw his lips curl into a smile as he dashed his pen into
the ink and began to write. Then suddenly it dropped from his fingers,
and his hands were clasped to his forehead. He made no motion and
uttered no cry; men went on with their work on each side of him, and
professors at their desks never turned his way. I looked wildly towards
Jim; he sat there, biting the end of his pen and scowling at the
question before him, but for a long time never looked our way. At last
his head turned, and in an instant he was at his friend's side. Others
came round too and offered help. Among them my poor master was borne
from the hall and carried to his rooms, and that evening it was known
all over the University that Reader, of George's, had been taken ill
during the Tripos examination, and now lay delirious in his rooms in
college.

Every one believed the attack was but a slight one, but I feared the
worst; I knew how systematically and fatally my master's constitution
had been undermined by the work of the last three years, and felt sure
it could never rally from the fierce fever which had laid him low. And
it never did. The fever left him in due time, and his mind ceased to
wander, but every hour his strength faile