effort, and I had heard Fry call the work
interesting. Fry was the kind of man to be interested in anything that
gave him a living, but there was no reason why a more captious spirit,
in view of the great advantages, should not accommodate itself to the
routine that might present itself. The post was in the gift of the
Government of Bengal, but that was no reason why the Government of
Bengal should not be grateful in the difficulty of making a choice for a
hint from us. The difficulty was really great. They would have to
write home and advertise in the 'Athenaeum'--for some reason
Indian Governments always advertise educational appointments in
the 'Athenaeum'; it is a habit which dates from the days of John
Company--and that would mean delay. And then the result might be a
disappointment. Might Armour not also be a disappointment? That I really
could not say. A new man is always a speculation, and departments, like
individuals, have got to take their luck.

The Viceroy was so delighted--everybody was so delighted--with the medal
picture that the merest breath blown among them would secure Armour's
nomination. Should I blow that breath? These happy thoughts must always
occur to somebody. This one had occurred to me. Ten to one it
would occur to nobody else, and last of all to Armour himself. The
advertisement might already be on its way home to the 'Athenaeum'.

It would make everything possible. It would throw a very different
complexion over the idyll. It would turn that interlacing wreath of
laurels and of poppies into the strongest bond in the world.

I would simply have nothing to do with it.

But there was no harm I asking Armour to dine with me; I sent the note
off by messenger after breakfast and told the steward to put a magnum
of Pommery to cool at seven precisely. I had some idea, I suppose, of
drinking with Armour to his eternal discomfiture. Then I went to the
office with a mind cleared of responsibility and comfortably pervaded
with the glow of good intentions.

The moment I saw the young man, punctual and immediate and a little
uncomfortable about the cuffs, I regretted not having asked one or two
more fellows. It might have spoiled the occasion, but it would have
saved the situation. That single glance of my accustomed eye--alas!
that it was so well accustomed--revealed him anxious and screwed up,
as nervous as a cat, but determined, revealed--how well I knew the
signs!--that he had something confide