e moments in the library
pondering. He had shut the door. The curtains he had forgotten to pull
back, and now he discovered his omission and went to the farther end of
the room.

The opposite wall, the wall of the court, was just tipped with silver.
Distant spires and gables were silver grey. The clouds were drifting
over the city westwards, and as the moon rode higher and higher in the
southern sky, so the clouds sped faster before it, and behind it lay
clear unfathomable spaces in the east.

The Warden pulled the heavy curtain across the window again, and walked
to the fireplace. Outside was the infinite universe--its immensity awful
to contemplate! Inside was the narrow security of the lighted room in
which he worked and thought and would work and think--for a few years!

For a few years?

How did he know that he should have even a few years in which to think
and work for his College?

The Warden went to the fire and stood looking down into it, his hands
clasped behind his back.

The girl he was pledged to marry, if she wished to marry him, might
wreck his life! She had only just a few moments ago showed signs of
being weakly hysterical. "Helpful to the College!" His sister's
question had filled him with a sudden new ominous thought.

What about the College? He had forgotten his duty to the College!

"My marriage is my own concern," he was blurting out to himself
miserably, as he looked at the fire. But the inevitable answer was
already drumming in his ears--his own answer: "A man's action is not his
own concern, and so deeply is every man involved in the life of the
community in which he lives, that even his thoughts are not his own
concern."

The Warden paced up and down.

There were letters lying on his desk unopened, unread. He would not
attempt to answer any of them to-night. He could not attend to them,
while these words were beating in his brain: "Do you think she will be
helpful to the College?"

His College! More to him than anything else, more than his duty; his
hope, his pride! And the College meant also the sacred memory of those
who had fallen in the war, all the glorious hopeful youth that had
sacrificed itself! And he had forgotten the College!

He dared not think any longer. He must wrestle with his thoughts. He
must force them aside and wait, till the moment came when he must act.
That moment might not come! Possibly it might not! He would go to bed
and try and sleep. He must not let