ngs against idleness I was allowed to do as I
wanted, and Mr. Edwardes got rid of me, which must have pleased him
very much. I do not think that any one else ever upset him so
completely as I did, and I have never been able to find out why he
disapproved of me to such an extent, unless it was that until I got
accustomed to him I thought him funny, and when I think anybody or
anything funny I have to laugh. No one else laughed at Mr. Edwardes
except me, and I should not have done so if I could have helped it, but
an unintentionally comic don causes a lot of trouble.

Mr. Grace, the senior history don in St. Cuthbert's, was more like a
very benevolent parent than a tutor. Perhaps he was rather old for his
work, but he was so extraordinarily peaceful that you could not help
liking him, and I had a vague feeling that he was my grandfather. The
change from Mr. Edwardes to him was like going to bed in a choppy sea
and waking up in a punt on the Cherwell. I can't explain the feeling I
had for him, but he seemed to be surrounded by a homely atmosphere, and
he reminded me of hot-water bottles and well-aired beds without making
me feel stuffy. You worked for him because it struck you as being
hopelessly unfair to annoy him if you could help it. He was a most
pleasant old gentleman, and a very convenient tutor to have in a summer
term. The Bradder, however, to whom I had also to read essays, scoffed
when I told him that I had two years and a term before my examinations,
and generally speaking allowed me to see that he was going to stand no
nonsense. If he had been less of a sportsman I should have thought him
more inconvenient, for I never found an excuse which he considered a
reasonable one, and after I had done two very short essays for him he
let me understand that I must do more work if I wanted him to be
pleasant.

"Look here, Marten, it won't do," he said to me when I had read my
second essay to him, which even surprised me by its early closing.
"This could not have taken you a quarter of an hour to write, and you
have read it in five minutes."

I had tried to lengthen my essay by stopping to discuss any point which
might make him talk, but he knew all about that time-worn device, and
had told me to finish reading before we discussed anything, and when I
had finished there did not seem much to discuss.

"It's the summer term, and I read very fast," I said, because he was
waiting for me to say something.

"Don'