man
who can turn out the perfect article,--the gentleman.' Come now, what
relations subsisted between Cyrus and Xenophon?"

"Xenophon coached him, sir."

"So he did. Just strike a light for me. My head is splitting for want of
a cigar. You may have a cigarette too. I don't object Virgil we'll keep
till to-morrow. Virgil was a muff, after all. Virgil was a decentish
sort of Martin Tupper, Digby. He had no wit, no repartee, no smartness;
he prosed about ploughs and shepherds, like a maudlin old squire; or he
told a very shady sort of anecdote about Dido, which I always doubted
should be put into the hands of youth. Horace is free, too, a thought
too free; but he could n't help it. Horace lived the same kind of life
we do here, a species of roast-partridge and pretty woman sort of life;
but then he was the gentleman always. If old Flaccus had lived now,
he'd have been pretty much like Bob Eccles, and putting in his divinity
lectures perhaps. By the way, I hope your father won't go and give
away that small rectory in Kent. 'We who live to preach, must preach
to live.' That is n't exactly the line, but it will do. Pulvis et umbra
sumus, Digby; and take what care we may of ourselves, we must go back,
as the judges say, to the place from whence we came. There, now, you 've
had classical criticism, sound morality, worldly wisdom, and the rest
of it; and, with your permission, we'll pack up the books, and stand
prorogued till--let me see--Saturday next."

Of course I moved no amendment, and went my way rejoicing.

From that hour I was free to follow my own inclinations, which usually
took a horsey turn; and as the stable offered several mounts, I very
often rode six hours a day. Hotham was always to be found in the
pistol-gallery about four of an afternoon, and I usually joined him
there, and speedily became more than his match.

"Well, youngster," he would say, when beaten and irritable, "I can beat
your head off at billiards, anyhow."

But I was not long in robbing him of even this boast, and in less than
three months I could defy the best player in the house. The fact was,
I had in a remarkable degree that small talent for games of every kind
which is a speciality with certain persons. I could not only learn a
game quickly, but almost always attain considerable skill in it.

"So, sir," said my father to me one day at dinner,--and nothing was more
rare than for him to address a word to me, and I was startled as he did