ourse!

He would want to leave--Oxford, then!

No, oh no! Only some day he would have to.

She answered: "Some never get away!"

And he said quickly: "Of course, I shall never want to leave Oxford
while you are there."

He heard her draw her breath in sharply.

"Oh yes, you will! Now help me up!" And she led the way back to the
hotel.

He stayed out on the terrace when she had gone in, restless and unhappy
the moment he was away from her. A voice close by said:

"Well, friend Lennan--brown study, or blue devils, which?"

There, in one of those high wicker chairs that insulate their occupants
from the world, he saw his tutor leaning back, head a little to one
side, and tips of fingers pressed together. He looked like an idol
sitting there inert, and yet--yesterday he had gone up that mountain!

"Cheer up! You will break your neck yet! When I was your age, I remember
feeling it deeply that I was not allowed to risk the lives of others."

Lennan stammered out:

"I didn't think of that; but I thought where Mrs. Stormer could go, I
could."

"Ah! For all our admiration we cannot quite admit--can we, when it comes
to the point?"

The boy's loyalty broke into flame:

"It's not that. I think Mrs. Stormer as good as any man--only--only--"

"Not quite so good as you, eh?"

"A hundred times better, sir."

Stormer smiled. Ironic beast!

"Lennan," he said, "distrust hyperbole."

"Of course, I know I'm no good at climbing," the boy broke out again;
"but--but--I thought where she was allowed to risk her life, I ought to
be!"

"Good! I like that." It was said so entirely without irony for once,
that the boy was disconcerted.

"You are young, Brother Lennan," his tutor went on. "Now, at what age
do you consider men develop discretion? Because, there is just one
thing always worth remembering--women have none of that better part of
valour."

"I think women are the best things in the world," the boy blurted out.

"May you long have that opinion!" His tutor had risen, and was
ironically surveying his knees. "A bit stiff!" he said. "Let me know
when you change your views!"

"I never shall, sir."

"Ah, ah! Never is a long word, Lennan. I am going to have some tea;"
and gingerly he walked away, quizzing, as it were, with a smile, his own
stiffness.

Lennan remained where he was, with burning cheeks. His tutor's words
again had seemed directed against her. How could a man say such things
about women! If the