few lines from Homer.

'That book of the "Odyssey" is not in the college course,' said Dr.
Henry. 'How did you come to read it?'

Hyacinth had no explanation to give. He had read the book, it seemed,
without being forced, and without hope of getting a prize. He recited it
as if he liked it. The remainder of the examination disclosed the fact
that he was lamentably deficient in the rudiments of Greek grammar, and
had the very vaguest ideas of the history of the Church.

Afterwards Professor Henry discussed the new class with his assistants
as they crossed the square together.

'The usual lot,' said Dr. Spenser--'half a dozen scholars, perhaps one
man among them with real brains. The rest are either idlers or, what is
worse, duffers.'

'I hit on one man with brains,' said Dr. Henry.

'Oh! Thompson, I suppose. I saw that you took him. He did well in his
degree exam.'

'No,' said Dr. Henry; 'the man I mean has more brains than Thompson.
He's a man I never heard of before. His name is Conneally. He looks
as if he came up from the wilds somewhere. He has hands like an
agricultural labourer, and a brogue that I fancy comes from Galway.
But he's a man to keep an eye on. He may do something by-and-by if he
doesn't go off the lines. We must try and lick him into shape a bit.'

Hyacinth Conneally knew extremely little about the politics, foreign or
domestic, of the English nation. His father neither read newspapers nor
cared to discuss such rumours of the doings of Governments as happened
to reach Carrowkeel. On the other hand, he knew a good deal about
the history of Ireland, and the English were still for him the 'new
foreigners' whom Keating describes. His intercourse with the fishermen
and peasants of the Galway seaboard had intensified his vague dislike
of the series of oscillations between bullying and bribery which make up
the story of England's latest attempts to govern Ireland. Without in the
least understanding the reasons for the war in South Africa, he felt
a strong sympathy with the Boers. To him they seemed a small people
doomed, if they failed to defend themselves, to something like the
treatment which Ireland had received.

It was therefore with surprise, almost with horror, that he listened for
the first time to the superlative Imperialism of the Protestant Unionist
party when he attended the prayer-meeting to which he had been invited.
The room was well filled with students, who joined heartily in the