happened to be our late host, the new man at our old house, and he
wrote to congratulate Raffles on what he was pleased to consider a
direct result of the latter's speech. I did not see the letter that
Raffles wrote in reply, but in due course I heard the name of the
mysterious contributor. He was said to be no other than Nipper Nasmyth
himself. I asked Raffles if it was true. He replied that he would ask
old Nipper point-blank if he came up as usual to the 'Varsity
match, and if they had the luck to meet. And not only did this happen,
but I had the greater luck to be walking round the ground with Raffles
when we encountered our shabby friend in front of the pavilion.

[Illustration: He kept us laughing in his study until the chapel bells
rang him out.]

"My dear fellow," cried Raffles, "I hear it was you who gave that
hundred guineas by stealth to the very movement you denounced. Don't
deny it, and don't blush to find it fame. Listen to me. There was a
great lot in what you said; but it's the kind of thing we ought all to
back, whether we strictly approve of it in our hearts or not."

"Exactly, Raffles, but the fact is----"

"I know what you're going to say. Don't say it. There's not one in a
thousand who would do as you've done, and not one in a million who
would do it anonymously."

"But what makes you think I did it, Raffles?"

"Everybody is saying so. You will find it all over the place when you
get back. You will find yourself the most popular man down there,
Nasmyth!"

I never saw a nobler embarrassment than that of this awkward,
ungainly, cantankerous man: all his angles seemed to have been
smoothed away: there was something quite human in the flushed,
undecided, wistful face.

"I never was popular in my life," he said. "I don't want to buy my
popularity now. To be perfectly candid with you, Raffles----"

"Don't! I can't stop to hear. They're ringing the bell. But you
shouldn't have been angry with me for saying you were a generous good
chap, Nasmyth, when you were one all the time. Good-by, old fellow!"

But Nasmyth detained us a second more. His hesitation was at an end.
There was a sudden new light in his face.

"Was I?" he cried. "Then I'll make it _two_ hundred, and damn the
odds!"

Raffles was a thoughtful man as we went to our seats. He saw nobody,
would acknowledge no remark. Neither did he attend to the cricket for
the first half-hour after lunch; instead, he eventually invited me to
co