d me into an intellectual life, if you
can call it so. Not much intellect required in my every-day business,
at all events. The school in which I teach is a fair type of the
middle-class commercial 'academy;' the headmaster a nincompoop and
charlatan, my fellow-assistants poor creatures, who must live, I
suppose,--though one doesn't well understand why. I had always a liking
for Greek and Latin and can make shift to read both in a way
satisfactory to myself, though I dare say it wouldn't go for much with
college examiners. Then, as for my scribbling, well, it has scarcely
yet passed the amateur stage. It will some day; simply because I've
made up my mind that it shall; but as yet I haven't got beyond a couple
of weak articles in weak magazines, and I don't exactly feel sure of my
way. I rather think we shall approach most nearly in our taste for
poetry. I liked much what you had to say about Keats. It decided me
that we ought to go on."

Julian looked up with a bright smile.

"What did you think at first of my advertisement, eh?" cried Waymark,
with a sudden burst of loud laughter. "Queer idea, wasn't it?"

"It came upon me curiously. It was so like a frequent thought of my own
actually carried out."

"It was? You have felt that same desperate need of congenial society?"

"I have felt it very strongly indeed. I live so very much alone, and
have always done so. Fortunately I am of a very cheerful disposition,
or I might have suffered much. The young fellows I see every day
haven't much intellect, it must be confessed. I used to try to get them
under the influence of my own enthusiasms, but they didn't seem to
understand me. They care only for things which either repel me, or are
utterly without interest."

"Ha! you understand what that means!" Waymark had risen from his low
chair, and stood with his back to the fire. His eyes had a new life,
and he spoke in a strong, emphatic way which suited well with his
countenance. "You know what it is to have to do exclusively with fools
and brutes, to rave under the vile restraints of Philistine
surroundings? Then you can form some notion of the state I was in when
I took the step of writing that advertisement; I was, I firmly believe,
on the verge of lunacy! For two or three days I had come back home from
the school only to pace up and down the room in an indescribable
condition. I get often like that, but this time things seemed reaching
a head. Why, I positively cried wit