not brace itself to the
effort; and then it seemed to Hugh that he was as one who lay
thirsting, with water in reach of his nerveless hand. Still there were
few things of which he was so absolutely certain as he was of the
abounding strength of prayer; it seemed to reveal a dim form moving
behind the veil of things, which in the moment of entreaty seemed to
suspend its progress, to stop, to draw near, to smile. Why the gifts
from that wise hand were often such difficult things, stones for bread,
serpents for fish, Hugh could not divine. But he tended less and less
to ask for precise things, but to pray in the spirit of the old Dorian
prayer that what was good might be given him, even if he did not
perceive it to be good, and that what was evil might be withheld, even
if he desired it.

While he thus mused, walking swiftly, the day darkened about him,
drawing the colour out of field and tree. The tides of the sky
thickened, and set to a deep enamelled green, and a star came out above
the tree-tops. Now and then he passed through currents of cool air
that streamed out of the low wooded valleys, rich with the fragrance of
copse and dingle. An owl fluted sweetly in a little holt, and was
answered by another far up the hill. He heard in the breeze, now loud,
now low, the far-off motions of the wheels of some cart rumbling
blithely homewards. All else was still. At last he came out on the
top of the wolds; the road stretched before him, a pale ribbon among
dusky fields; and the lights of the distant village pierced through the
darker gloom of sheltering trees. Hugh seemed that night to walk with
his unknown friend close beside him, answering his hopes, stilling his
vague discontents, with a pure and tender faithfulness that left him
nothing to desire, but that the sweet nearness might not fail him. At
such a moment, dear and wonderful as the world was, he felt that it
held nothing so beautiful or so dear as that sweet companionship, and
that if he had been bidden, in that instant, strong and content as he
was, to enter the stream of death, a firm hand and a smiling face would
have lifted him, as the stream grew shallower about him, safe and
satisfied, up on the further side.

XXVIII

Democracy--Individualism--Corporateness--Materialism

Among the most interesting of the new friends that Hugh made at
Cambridge was a young Don who was understood to hold advanced
socialistic views. What was more importan