discover that the opinions he gave forth with so much
pomp and circumstance had been unconsciously pilfered. The mind of every
young man is an unblushing thief. It drifts into honest ways in due
time, however, and when it does not, the aged plagiarist may argue that
he still remains young.

In a word, the influence of Mr. Puddephatt fell upon Henry at a most
critical moment in his zigzag journey towards sober common-sense, and
the modified tone of the review indicated a similar change in the inner
thoughts of the young journalist--too sudden, perhaps, to be alarming.

But it was apparent that he had become unsettled in his religious
convictions as the result of frequent subsequent meetings with his
fellow-lodger, who exercised a conscious fascination over the younger
man, and could induce Henry to reveal his inmost thoughts without
himself volunteering much about his own personal history. Mr. P. was
actuated, no doubt, mainly by sheer interest in his friend, and had no
sinister end--as he conceived it--in view. So the friendship grew, to
the no small annoyance of Flo Winton, who had frequent cause to chide
her lover for giving more of his scanty leisure to Mr. P. than to
one--mentioning no names--who had perhaps more claim upon it.

At the _Leader_ office he was finding things less to his mind than he
had hoped. Five years ago the editorship of a daily paper was a golden
dream to him; a year ago, his brightest hope; to-day, a post involving
much drudgery, more diplomacy and temporising; small satisfaction.

He imagined that his case was exceptional. "If this," and "granted
that," the editorship of the _Leader_ was an ideal post. Minus the ifs,
it was not a bed of roses. The cyclist who is bumping along a rough road
notices that his friend is wheeling smoothly on the other side, and
steers across to get on the smooth track, just as his friend leaves it
for the same reason reversed.

We all suppose our trials to be exceptional, and the chances are that
the people we are envying are envying us. Conceivably, the editorship of
the _Times_ is not heavenly. There were some hundreds of ambitious
journalists ready to rush for Henry's post the moment he showed signs of
quitting. A newspaper that has had fifteen editors in five years will
have five hundred candidates for the job when the fifteenth gives up the
struggle. Henry had learned at the rate of a year a week since he became
editor.

That leader yesterday had displea