e, to face anything certain and
irrevocable. I understand. He could not say good-bye to a friend to save
his life. There is no shirking that! One must either do it or leave it!'

Cathcart shrugged his shoulders, and drew a masterly little picture of
Langham's life in college. He had succeeded by the most adroit devices
in completely isolating himself both from the older and the younger men.

'He attends college-meeting sometimes, and contributes a sarcasm or two
on the cramming system of the college. He takes a constitutional to
Summertown every day on the least frequented side of the road, that he
may avoid being spoken to. And as to his ways of living, he and I happen
to have the same scout--old Dobson, you remember? And if I would let
him, he would tell me tales by the hour. He is the only man in the
University who knows anything about it. I gather from what he says that
Langham is becoming a complete valetudinarian. Everything must go
exactly by rule--his food, his work, the management of his clothes--and
any little _contretemps_ makes him ill. But the comedy is to watch him
when there is anything going on in the place that he thinks may lead to
a canvass and to any attempt to influence him for a vote. On these
occasions he goes off with automatic regularity to an hotel at West
Malvern, and only reappears when the _Times_ tells him the thing is done
with.'

Both laughed. Then Robert sighed. Weaknesses of Langham's sort may be
amusing enough to the contemptuous and unconcerned outsider. But the
general result of them, whether for the man himself or those whom he
affects, is tragic, not comic; and Elsmere had good reason for knowing
it.

Later, after a long talk with the provost, and meetings with various
other old friends, he walked down to the station, under a sky clear from
rain, and through a town gay with festal preparations. Not a sign now,
in these crowded, bustling streets, of that melancholy pageant of the
afternoon. The heroic memory had flashed for a moment like something
vivid and gleaming in the sight of all, understanding and ignorant. Now
it lay committed to a few faithful hearts, there to become one seed
among many of a new religious life in England.

On the platform Robert found himself nervously accosted by a tall
shabbily-dressed man.

'Elsmere, have you forgotten me?'

He turned and recognised a man whom he had last seen as a St. Anselm's
undergraduate--one MacNiell, a handsome rowdy young