n sullen dreariness, which
certainly did not appear to lend any dignity to life. But he had not
the heart to spoil the little lady's pleasure, and engaged in small
talk upon moderately abstract topics with courteous industry. "Of
course," said his companion confidingly, "all that I do is on a very
small scale, but I think that the quality of it is what matters--the
quality of one's ideal, I mean." Howard murmuringly assented. "I have
sometimes even wished," she went on, "that I had some real trouble of
my own--that seems foolish to you, no doubt, because my life is such an
easy one--but I do feel that my happiness rather cuts me off from other
people--and I don't want to be cut off from other people; I desire to
know how and why they suffer."

"Ah," said Howard, "while you feel that, it is all right; but the worst
of real suffering is, I believe, that it is apt to be entirely
dreary--it is not at all romantic, as it seems from the outside; indeed
it is the loss of all that sense of excitement which makes suffering
what it is. But really I have no right to speak either, for I have had
a very happy life too."

Miss Merry heard him moist-eyed and intent. "Yes, I am sure that is
true!" she said. "I suppose we all have just as much as we can
use--just as much as it is good for us to have."

They found that the others had arrived, and were unpacking the
luncheon. Maud greeted Howard with a shy expectancy; but the sight of
her, slender and fresh in her rough walking-dress, renewed his strange
pangs. What did he want of her, he asked himself; what was this
mysterious and unmanning sense, that made him conscious of every
movement and every word of the girl? Why could he not meet her in a
cheerful, friendly, simple way, and make the most of her enchanting
company?

Mr. Sandys was in great spirits, revelling in arrangements and
directions. But the wind was taken out of his sails by the two young
men, who were engaged in enacting a bewildering kind of drama, a saga,
of which the venerable Mr. Redmayne appeared to be the hero. Guthrie,
who was in almost overpowering spirits, took the part of Mr. Redmayne,
whom he imitated with amazing fidelity. He had become, it seemed, a man
of low and degrading tastes--'Erb Redmayne, he was called, or old 'Erb,
whose role was to lead the other authorities of the college into all
kinds of disreputable haunts, to prompt them to absurd misdeeds, to
take advantage of their ingenuousness, to make