d the Dean dryly. He spoke with
that contempt of generalizations of which all dons made a habit.

"Oh, I don't know," said Michael. "But vaguely I would say that Oxford
would cure them of being surprised by themselves or of showing surprise
at anybody else. Marcus Aurelius said what I'm trying to say much better
than I ever can. Also they will gain a sense of humor, or rather they
will ripen whatever sense they already possess. And they'll have a sense
of continuity, too, and perhaps--but of course this will depend very
much on their dons--perhaps they'll take as much interest in the world
as in Australia."

"Why will that depend on their dons?" challenged Mr. Ambrose.

"Oh, well, you know," explained Michael apologetically, "dons very often
haven't much capacity for inquisitiveness. They get frightened very
easily, don't they?"

"Very true, very true," said the Warden. "But, my dear Fane, your
optimism and your pessimism are both quixotic, immensely quixotic."

Later on in the quad when the undergraduate members of the dinner party
discussed the evening, Maurice rallied Michael on his conversation.

"If you can talk your theories, why can't you write them?" he
complained.

"Because they'd be almost indecently diaphanous," said Michael.

"Good old Fane!" said Grainger. "But, I say, you are an extraordinary
chap, you know."

"He did it for me," said Lonsdale. "Pumpkin-head would have burst, if
I'd let out I didn't know what part of the jolly old world my governor
used to run."

CHAPTER X

STELLA IN OXFORD

Alan, when he met Michael at Paddington, was a great deal more cheerful
than when they had gone up together for the previous term. He had
managed to achieve a second class in Moderations, and he had now in view
a term of cricket whose energy might fortunately be crowned with a blue.
Far enough away now seemed Greats and not very alarming Plato and
Aristotle at these first tentative encounters.

Michael dined with Alan at Christ Church after the Seniors' match, in
which his host had secured in the second innings four wickets at a
reasonable price. Alan casually nodded to one or two fellow hosts at the
guest table, but did not offer to introduce Michael. All down the hall,
men were coming in to dinner and going out of dinner as unconcernedly as
if it had been the dining-saloon of a large hotel.

"Who is that man just sitting down?" Michael would ask.

"I don't know," Alan would reply, and in hi