w," quoth Tom, laughing. "I do not consider myself quite perfect
yet."

"What if those points were not really any part of your character, but
mere excrescences of disease: or if that be too degrading a notion, mere
scars of old wounds, and of the wear and tear of life; and what if, in
some future life, all those disappeared, and the true Mr. Thomas
Thurnall, pure and simple, were alone left?"

"It is a very hopeful notion. Only, my dear sir, one is quite
self-conceited enough in this imperfect state. What intolerable coxcombs
we should all be if we were perfect, and could sit admiring ourselves for
ever and ever!"

"But what if that self-conceit and self-dependence were the very root of
all the disease, the cause of all the scars, the very thing which will
have to be got rid of, before our true character and true manhood can be
developed?"

"Yes, I understand. Faith and humility.... You will forgive me, Major
Campbell. I shall learn to respect those virtues when good people have
defined them a little more exactly, and can show me somewhat more
clearly in what faith differs from superstition, and humility from
hypocrisy."

"I do not think any man will ever define them for you. But you may go
through a course of experiences, more severe, probably, than pleasant,
which may enable you at last to define them for yourself."

"Have you defined them?" asked Tom, bluntly, glancing round at his
companion.

"Faith?--Yes, I trust. Humility?--No, I fear."

"I should like to hear your definition of the former, at least."

"Did I not say that you must discover it for yourself?"

"Yes. Well. When the lesson comes, if it does come, I suppose it will
come in some learnable shape; and till then, I must shift for myself--
and if self-dependence he a punishable sin, I shall, at all events, have
plenty of company whithersoever I go. There is Lord Scoutbush and
Trebooze!"

Why did not Campbell speak his mind more clearly to Thurnall?

Because he knew that with such men words are of little avail. The
disease was entrenched too strongly in the very centre of the man's
being. It seemed at moments as if all his strange adventures and
hairbreadth escapes had been sent to do him harm, and not good; to
pamper and harden his self-confidence, not to crush it. Therefore
Campbell seldom argued with him: but he prayed for him often; for he had
begun, as all did who saw much of Tom Thurnall, to admire and respect
him, in spite of all his f