had noosed themselves. He made a fair
living, but, like Dr Johnson, had no passion for clean linen.

Yule was not disdainful of these old companions, and the fact that
all had a habit of looking up to him increased his pleasure in their
occasional society. If, as happened once or twice in half a year,
several of them were gathered together at his house, he tasted a sham
kind of social and intellectual authority which he could not help
relishing. On such occasions he threw off his habitual gloom and talked
vigorously, making natural display of his learning and critical ability.
The topic, sooner or later, was that which is inevitable in such a
circle--the demerits, the pretentiousness, the personal weaknesses of
prominent contemporaries in the world of letters. Then did the room ring
with scornful laughter, with boisterous satire, with shouted irony,
with fierce invective. After an evening of that kind Yule was unwell and
miserable for several days.

It was not to be expected that Mr Quarmby, inveterate chatterbox of the
Reading-room and other resorts, should keep silence concerning what he
had heard of Mr Rackett's intentions. The rumour soon spread that
Alfred Yule was to succeed Fadge in the direction of The Study, with the
necessary consequence that Yule found himself an object of affectionate
interest to a great many people of whom he knew little or nothing. At
the same time the genuine old friends pressed warmly about him, with
congratulations, with hints of their sincere readiness to assist in
filling the columns of the paper. All this was not disagreeable, but in
the meantime Yule had heard nothing whatever from Mr Rackett himself and
his doubts did not diminish as week after week went by.

The event justified him. At the end of October appeared an authoritative
announcement that Fadge's successor would be--not Alfred Yule, but a
gentleman who till of late had been quietly working as a sub-editor in
the provinces, and who had neither friendships nor enmities among the
people of the London literary press. A young man, comparatively fresh
from the university, and said to be strong in pure scholarship. The
choice, as you are aware, proved a good one, and The Study became an
organ of more repute than ever.

Yule had been secretly conscious that it was not to men such as he that
positions of this kind are nowadays entrusted. He tried to persuade
himself that he was not disappointed. But when Mr Quarmby approached