to most men would be casting
pearls before swine. I have always meant to tell you when a suitable
opportunity came up."

"You know," he said, when I had signified my eagerness to hear, "that I
graduated at Leroy College. It was a little one-horse institution, but
blue as a whetstone in its orthodoxy; and with my father, who was a
clergyman of a very strait sect and staid views, that fact covered
a multitude of shortcomings. I was nineteen when I entered, and
consequently twenty when, at the beginning of sophomore year, I came
under the charge of Professor Regnier. He was a Frenchman, but spoke
English with perfect ease and precision and a very slight accent. At the
time I knew him, he was probably sixty. His hair was quite gray, but his
mustache and imperial were still dark. It was rumored among the students
that he had left his native land for political reasons, having played
for too high stakes at the national game of revolution. True or not, the
report naturally heightened the interest which his personality had for
us.

"He made it his business to know personally all the students in his
classes; and as it is not easy for a man of sixty, especially if he is
also their teacher, to become really acquainted with students of twenty,
the fact may be taken as evidence of his unusual tact. He was, I think,
the most fascinating man I ever saw. His insight into character was like
magic, his manners were charming, and his Gallic vivacity made him seem
like a boy. Gradually, while still remaining to the rest of the students
a genial and friendly instructor, he singled out a smaller circle
of particular intimates. Of these I was one, and I believe the most
trusted.

"Of course we boys were immensely flattered by the partiality of such
a man; but equally of course the pursuit of his own pleasure
could scarcely have been the motive which impelled him to seek our
companionship. It was, in fact, a motive as unselfish as that of the
missionary who leaves the comforts and refinements of civilization and
exiles himself among savages that he may win them to his faith. He had
been a personal friend and disciple of Auguste Comte, then but lately
dead, and on coming to America had sought his present employment, not
merely as a means of livelihood, but equally for the opportunity it
offered for propagating the new gospel among young men. Do you know much
about what Positivism is?"

I confessed that I knew next to nothing,--scarcely more