inly. I'm going to leave the clothes I've got on to you, and you
can fetch the hammock when I've gone."

"When do you start?"

"Mr. Guiseley will have his last interview and obtain his _exeat_ from
the Dean at half-past six this evening. He proposes to leave Cambridge
in the early hours of to-morrow morning."

"You don't mean that!"

"Certainly I do."

"What are you going to wear?"

Frank extended two flanneled legs, ending in solid boots.

"These--a flannel shirt, no tie, a cap, a gray jacket."

Jack stood again in silence, looking at him.

"How much money did your sale make?"

"That's immaterial. Besides, I forget. The important fact is that when
I've paid all my bills I shall have thirteen pounds eleven shillings and
eightpence."

"What?"

"Thirteen pounds eleven shillings and eightpence."

Jack burst into a mirthless laugh.

"Well, come along to lunch," he said.

* * * * *

It seemed to Jack that he moved in a dreary kind of dream that afternoon
as he went about with Frank from shop to shop, paying bills. Frank's
trouser-pockets bulged and jingled a good deal as they started--he had
drawn all his remaining money in gold from the bank--and they bulged
and jingled considerably less as the two returned to tea in Jesus Lane.
There, on the table, he spread out the coins. He had bought some
tobacco, and two or three other things that afternoon, and the total
amounted now but to twelve pounds nineteen shillings and fourpence.

"Call it thirteen pounds," said Frank. "There's many a poor man--"

"Don't be a damned fool!" said Jack.

"I'm being simply prudent," said Frank. "A contented heart--"

Jack thrust a cup of tea and the buttered buns before him.

* * * * *

These two were as nearly brothers as possible, in everything but blood.
Their homes lay within ten miles of one another. They had gone to a
private school together, to Eton, and to Trinity. They had ridden
together in the holidays, shot, dawdled, bathed, skated, and all the
rest. They were considerably more brothers to one another than were
Frank and Archie, his actual elder brother, known to the world as
Viscount Merefield. Jack did not particularly approve of Archie; he
thought him a pompous ass, and occasionally said so.

For Frank he had quite an extraordinary affection, though he would not
have expressed it so, to himself, for all the world, and a very real
admiration o