han his compeers. If it was
dancing in the season, Jack Meredith danced, and no man rivalled him.
If it was grouse shooting, Jack Meredith held his gun as straight as any
man. All the polite accomplishments in their season seemed to come to
him without effort; but there was in all the same lack of heart--that
utter want of enthusiasm which imparted to his presence a subtle
suggestion of boredom. The truth was that he was over-educated. Sir John
had taught him how to live and move and have his being with so minute
a care, so keen an insight, that existence seemed to be nothing but an
habitual observance of set rules.

Sir John called him sarcastically his "bright boy," his "hopeful
offspring," the "pride of his old age"; but somewhere in his shrivelled
old heart there nestled an unbounded love and admiration for his son.
Jack had assimilated his teaching with a wonderful aptitude. He had as
nearly as possible realised Sir John Meredith's idea of what an
English gentleman should be, and the old aristocrat's standard was
uncompromisingly high. Public school, University, and two years on the
Continent had produced a finished man, educated to the finger-tips,
deeply read, clever, bright, and occasionally witty; but Jack Meredith
was at this time nothing more than a brilliant conglomerate of
possibilities. He had obeyed his father to the letter with a
conscientiousness bred of admiration. He had always felt that his father
knew best. And now he seemed to be waiting--possibly for further orders.
He was suggestive of a perfect piece of mechanism standing idle for want
of work delicate enough to be manipulated by its delicate craft. Sir
John had impressed upon him the desirability of being independent, and
he had promptly cultivated that excellent quality, taking kindly enough
to rooms of his own in a fashionable quarter. But upon the principle of
taking a horse to the water and being unable to make him drink, Sir John
had not hitherto succeeded in making Jack take the initiative. He had
turned out such a finished and polished English gentleman as his soul
delighted in, and now he waited in cynical silence for Jack Meredith to
take his life into his own hands and do something brilliant with it. All
that he had done up to now had been to prove that he could attain to a
greater social popularity than any other man of his age and station; but
this was not exactly the success that Sir John Meredith coveted for his
son. He had tasted