ed to come with us. I
thought he quite resented our intrusion, and was anxious to pass us up
without delay." Then, turning to her companions with whimsical
imperiousness, "Stand in a row, the whole class, till I introduce you
to your new instructor."

The dimness of the light and Leigh's perturbation of mind at the
thought of Emmet made his impression of the personnel of the party so
vague that he might have passed most of them the following day without
recognition. They had evidently dined well, and were finishing a gay
evening with a flying visit to the college observatory. Only the
personality of Cobbens was salient in the group, and would have been so
even if Leigh's curiosity concerning the man had not been previously
aroused.

"We're too frivolous for Cardington," he said, taking off his cap and
mopping his brow. "I'm glad to meet you, sir. This is a spooky place,
the ideal place for a man to hang himself in. I spent four years in
the Hall and never came up here before. I knew and loved your
predecessor, as all the fellows did. The old gentleman may not have
been well up in astronomy,--I don't know anything about that,--but he
was well up in the psychology of boys. He left a big place behind him,
which we 're not likely to see filled in a hurry."

During this address he continued to shake Leigh's hand with an apparent
cordiality that contrasted strongly with his final innuendo, but now
their hands fell apart with mutual repulsion. Leigh had been
prejudiced against the lawyer beforehand, and his first remarks at
their introduction contained a grisly jest and an implied slight. But
these things only paved the way to the final cause of distrust--the
fashion of the man himself. He was unprepossessing in every line. His
thin, pale face widened rapidly, like a top, to a broad and shining
pate, which looked not so much bald as half naked below its sparse
covering of reddish hair. His eyes were glimmering and of an
indeterminate colour. Yet his voice was not unattractive in its
persuasive intonation, and his manner was friendly almost to the verge
of effusiveness. Whatever might be his demerits from a physical point
of view, he lacked the general air of inconsequence that characterised
most of his companions. He conveyed unmistakably the assurance of a
certain malign power. One felt that his normal method of locomotion
was the mole's, but that sooner or later he would thrust his head above
the soil