come."

"How commonplace my life has been, in comparison," said Julian, after
an interval of thoughtfulness.

"Your nature, I believe, is very pure, and therefore very happy. _I_ am
what Browning somewhere calls a 'beast with a speckled hide,' and
happiness, I take it, I shall never know."

Julian could begin to see that his friend took something of a pleasure
in showing and dwelling upon the worst side of his own character.

"You will be happy," he said, "when you once find your true work, and
feel that you are doing it well."

"But the motives, the motives!--Never mind, I've talked enough of
myself for one sitting. Don't think I've told you everything. Plenty
more confessions to come, when time and place shall serve. Little by
little you will get to know me, and by then will most likely have had
enough of me."

"That is not at all likely; rather the opposite."

When they left the house together, shortly after eleven, Julian's eye
fell upon the dark figure of a girl, standing by a gas-lamp on the
opposite side of the way. The figure held his gaze. Waymark moved on,
and he had to follow, but still looked back. The girl had a veil half
down upon her face; she was gazing after the two. She moved, and the
resemblance to Harriet was so striking that Julian again stopped. As he
did so, the figure turned away, and walked in the opposite direction,
till it was lost in the darkness.

Julian went on, and for a time was very silent.

CHAPTER VIII

ACADEMICAL

The school in which Osmond Waymark taught was situated in "a pleasant
suburb of southern London" (Brixton, to wit); had its "spacious
playground and gymnasium" (the former a tolerable back-yard, the latter
a disused coach-house); and, as to educational features, offered, at
the choice of parents and guardians, either the solid foundation
desirable for those youths predestined to a commercial career, or the
more liberal training adapted to minds of a professional bias. Anything
further in the way of information was to be obtained by applying to the
headmaster, Dr. Tootle.

At present the number of resident pupils was something under forty. The
marvel was how so many could be accommodated in so small a house. Two
fair-sized bedrooms, and a garret in which the servants could not be
persuaded to sleep, served as dormitories for the whole school; the
younger children sleeping two together.

Waymark did not reside on the premises. For a stipulated sum of