fection, hope, and anxiety. But it
seemed to Hugh, with the curiously observant power that he already
possessed, though he could not have put it into words, that his father,
rather than himself, was experiencing the emotion that it would have
been appropriate for him to have felt. His father was disappointed
that Hugh did not seem more conscious of membership, of the dignity and
greatness of the place. His tender care about the books, the pictures,
and the furnishing of Hugh's little room, did indeed move the boy to a
certain gratitude. But his father's way on such occasions was to order
what he himself would have liked, and his taste was severe; and then he
demanded that the boy should not only accept, but enthusiastically
like, what was given him. Hugh's immature taste was all for what was
bright and fanciful; his father's for what was grave and dignified; and
thus though the boy was glad to have pictures of his own, he had rather
that they had not been engravings of old religious pictures; and he
would have preferred dainty china objects, such as candlesticks and
ornaments, to the solid metal fittings which his father gave him. When
they parted, his father gave him a serious exhortation to which the
child hardly listened. He set him on his guard against certain
temptations, when Hugh was ignorant of what he was alluding to; and the
emotion with which the boy took leave of his father was rather of envy
that he was returning to the dear home life, than regret at being
parted from him.

The first two years of the boy's school life passed like a bewildered
dream; he had a companion or two, but hardly a friend; he had little
idea of what was going on in the big place round him; he was not in the
least ambitious of distinction either in work or games; his one desire
was not to be conspicuous in any way. He was now a shy, awkward
creature; but as he was good-humoured enough, and as his performances
excited no envy in any of his companions, he was left to a great extent
to his own devices. The masters with whom he was brought into contact
he regarded with a distant awe; it never occurred to him that they took
any interest in their work or in the characters of the boys they dealt
with. He supposed vaguely that they liked to show their power by
scoring under the mistakes in exercises, and by setting punishments.
But they were all dim and inhuman beings to him. Only very gradually
did it dawn upon the boy that he had