to forget
vexations, and attuned him to kindred sprightliness. He entered merrily
into the talk of a time of life which is independent of morality--talk
distinct from that of the blackguard, but equally so from that of the
reflective man. His first glass had several successors. The trio
rambled arm in arm from one place of refreshment to another, and
presently sat down in hearty fellowship to a supper of such viands as
recommend themselves at bibulous midnight. Peak was drawing recklessly
upon the few coins that remained to him; he must leave his landlady's
claim undischarged, and send the money from home. Prudence be hanged!
If one cannot taste amusement once in a twelvemonth, why live at all?

He reached his lodgings, at something after one o'clock, drenched with
rain, gloriously indifferent to that and all other chances of life.
Pooh! his system had been radically wrong. He should have allowed
himself recreation once a week or so; he would have been all the better
for it, body and mind. Books and that kind of thing are all very well
in their way, but one must live; he had wasted too much of his youth in
solitude. _O mihi proeteritos referat si Jupiter annos!_ Next session
he would arrange things better. Success in examinations--what trivial
fuss when one looked at it from the right point of view! And he had
fretted himself into misery, because Chilvers had got more
'marks',--ha, ha, ha!

The morrow's waking was lugubrious enough. Headache and nausea weighed
upon him. Worse still, a scrutiny of his pockets showed that he had
only the shamefaced change of half-a-crown wherewith to transport
himself and his belongings to Twybridge. Now, the railway fare alone
was three shillings; the needful cab demanded eighteenpence. O idiot!

And he hated the thought of leaving his bill unpaid; the more so
because it was a trifling sum, a week's settlement. To put himself
under however brief an obligation to a woman such as the landlady
gnawed at his pride. Not that only. He had no business to make a demand
upon his mother for this additional sum. But there was no way of
raising the money; no one of whom he could borrow it; nothing he could
afford to sell--even if courage had supported him through such a
transaction. Triple idiot!

Bread turned to bran upon his hot palate; he could only swallow cups of
coffee. With trembling hands he finished the packing of his box and
portmanteau, then braced himself to the dreaded interview. O