by Plato, Mr. Lonsdale."

"What's he talking about?" Lonsdale whispered to Michael.

"Nor was it delivered by Mr. Fane," added the Senior Tutor dryly.

Lonsdale looked at first very much alarmed by this suggestion, then
seeing by the lecturer's face that something was still wrong, he assumed
a puzzled expression, and finally in an attempt to relieve the situation
he laughed very heartily and said:

"Oh, well, after all, it's very much the same." Then, as everybody else
laughed very loudly, Lonsdale sat down and leaned back, pulling up his
trousers in gentle self-congratulation.

"Rum old buffer," he whispered presently to Michael. "His eye gets very
glassy when he looks at me. Do you think I ought to ask him to lunch?"

Michael thought that Avery, Wedderburn and Lonsdale might be considered
to form the nucleus of the intimate ideal society which his imagination
was leading him on to shape. And if that trio seemed not completely to
represent the forty freshmen of St. Mary's, there might be added to the
list certain others for qualities of athletic renown that combined with
charm of personality gave them the right to be set up in Michael's
collection as types. There was Grainger, last year's Captain of the
Boats at Eton, who would certainly row for the 'Varsity in the spring.
Michael liked to sit in his rooms and watch his sprawling bulk and
listen for an hour at a time to his naive theories of life. Grainger
seemed to shed rays of positive goodness, and Michael found that he
exercised over this splendid piece of youth a fascination which to
himself was surprising.

"Great Scott, you are an odd chap," Grainger once ejaculated.

"Why?"

"Why, you're a clever devil, aren't you, and you don't seem to do
anything. Have I talked a lot of rot?"

"A good deal," Michael admitted. "At least, it would be rot if I talked
it, but it would be ridiculous if you talked in any other way."

"You _are_ a curious chap. I can't make you out."

"Why should you?" asked Michael. "You were never sent into this world to
puzzle out things. You were sent here to sprawl across it just as you're
sprawling across that sofa. When you go down, you'll go into the
Egyptian Civil Service and you'll sprawl across the Sahara in exactly
the same way. I rather wish I were like you. It must be quite
comfortable to sit down heavily and unconcernedly on a lot of people. I
can't imagine a more delightful mattress; only I should feel them
wriggling u