uld want to be a comedian, too!"

"It must be splendid," Henry murmured, "to be able to influence people
like that!"

The taxi drew up to the door of a house in one of the quieter Bloomsbury
squares, and Henry, looking out of the window, while Gilbert opened the
door of the cab, saw that the garden in the centre of the square was
very green. He could see figures in white flannels running and jumping,
and the sound of tennis balls, as they collided with the racquets,
pleased him.

"Your room overlooks the square," Gilbert said, as Henry got out of the
cab.

"Splendid!" he replied. "I shall imagine I'm in Dublin when I look out
of the window. It's just like Merrion Square!..."

"Well, pay the cabby, will you? I'm broke!" said Gilbert.

"You always are," Roger murmured.

2

Ninian joined them on the following day, very cheerless and irritable.
It was impossible for him to enter the shipbuilding firm owing to his
age, and so he had decided to enter the offices of a firm of engineers
in London. "Anybody can build a damned railway," he said, "but it takes
a man to build a ship. I'd love to build a liner ... one that could
cross the Atlantic in four days!"

"Four days!" Gilbert scoffed. "My dear Ninian, boats don't crawl across
the ocean! People want boats that will take them to New York in
twenty-four hours!..."

"And now, young fellows!" he went on, "it's time that we thought
seriously about our immortal souls!"

"Oh, is it?" said Ninian.

"Yes, it is," Gilbert replied.

They had dined, and were now sitting in Gilbert's room in the lax
attitude of people who have eaten well and are content.

"Here we are," Gilbert went on, using his pipe as a modulator of his
points, "four bright lads simply bursting with brains, and the question
is, what is to become of us? The Boy: What Will He Become? Take Roger,
for example, will he become Lord Chancellor of England, or a footling
little Registrar of a footling County Court?..."

"I haven't had a brief yet," Roger interrupted, "so that question's
somewhat premature, isn't it?"

"I'm not talking about _now_ ... I'm talking about the future," Gilbert
replied. "We ought to have some notion of what we're going to do with
our lives.... As a matter of fact," he continued, "your career's fairly
certain, Roger. With all that brain oozing out of you, you're bound to
become great. But what about little Ninian here? And Quinny? And me?
Ninian's a discontented sort of bloke,