ripe for some excitement, the mood which in my undergraduate
days would have tempted me to go out and paint the town." He threw
himself into a chair, looked about with a sense of being at home, and
passed his fingers wearily through the disordered masses of his hair.

The other looked at him attentively. "You make a great mistake," he
remarked, "in allowing yourself to get out of condition. With a
reasonable regard to the laws of health, you could keep yourself
looking like the discus-thrower, thinly disguised in modern
habiliments." He spoke like an impersonal judge, who appreciates the
excellence of a type and wishes to see it maintained.

Leigh laughed with some bitterness. "You remember what the German
professor said to his American student when he wished to take a rest.
'Who ever heard of a real mathematician with any health?'"

"Ah, yes," Cardington returned, with a comprehending look in his eyes,
"but I 'm afraid you had too good a time down there in New York, and
that now you 're working too hard by way of penance. But in regard to
your suggestion, I am inclined to think favourably of it. Not that the
President _per se_ is an object of great interest to me. His mental
processes are tolerably familiar, and I don't feel particularly in need
of instruction concerning my duty toward God and my duty toward my
neighbour. Still, this is an occasion of more than usual interest, as
perhaps you are aware."

A change had come into the relationship of these two, or rather a
readjustment of the view of the younger man concerning the older,
dating from the time when Cardington had disposed so neatly of his
tentative wish to accompany him to Bermuda. He had returned from the
South alone about a fortnight before, quite uncommunicative in regard
to his trip, merely saying that the Wycliffes would come by a later
boat. The shadow of the woman in the case was undoubtedly between
them, and yet it could not be said that jealousy, in the ordinary sense
of the word, was operative as an estranging element. Leigh had too
much reason to know that neither of them had much chance of winning
her, and he thought he divined in Cardington not so much a lover's
interest as a friend's deep concern on her behalf and an unwillingness
to mention her name in casual conversation.

Upon the present occasion Leigh was impressed with his air of subdued
excitement, with a hint of tension and expectancy, as if something
untoward were abou