emendous fate hanging thus ever suspended over their
heads. When for a little space I myself forgot it, always it fell back
upon me with increased weight.

Nor was the contemplation of heaven itself particularly attractive to
me, for it was a foolish paradise these foolish voices had fashioned out
of their folly. You stood about and sang hymns--for ever! I was assured
that my fear of finding the programme monotonous was due only to my
state of original sin, that when I got there I should discover I liked
it. But I would have given much for the hope of avoiding both their
heaven and their hell.

Fortunately for my sanity I was not left long to brood unoccupied upon
such themes. Our worldly affairs, under the sunshine of old Hasluck's
round red face, prospered--for awhile; and one afternoon my father, who
had been away from home since breakfast time, calling me into his office
where also sat my mother, informed me that the long-talked-of school was
become at last a concrete thing.

"The term commences next week," explained my father. "It is not exactly
what I had intended, but it will do--for the present. Later, of course,
you will go to one of the big public schools; your mother and I have not
yet quite decided which."

"You will meet other boys there, good and bad," said my mother, who
sat clasping and unclasping her hands. "Be very careful, dear, how you
choose your companions."

"You will learn to take your own part," said my father. "School is an
epitome of the world. One must assert oneself, or one is sat upon."

I knew not what to reply, the vista thus opened out to me was so
unexpected. My blood rejoiced, but my heart sank.

"Take one of your long walks," said my father, smiling, "and think it
over."

"And if you are in any doubt, you know where to go for guidance, don't
you?" whispered my mother, who was very grave.

Yet I went to bed, dreaming of quite other things that night: of
Queens of Beauty bending down to crown my brows with laurel: of wronged
Princesses for whose cause I rode to death or victory. For on my
return home, being called into the drawing-room by my father, I stood
transfixed, my cap in hand, staring with all my eyes at the vision that
I saw.

No such wonder had I ever seen before, at all events, not to my
remembrance. The maidens that one meets in Poplar streets may be fair
enough in their way, but their millinery displays them not to advantage;
and the few lady visitors that came