ed your character, and you certainly have had the
wisdom and luck, shall we say, like the host at the wedding, to keep
your best till last."

The Chief smiled the smile that was peculiarly his own, and peculiarly
winning. "I must not keep you any longer. But I did want to take this
opportunity of telling you that I have been pleased with you this term,
though perhaps my praise sounds weak beside the applause you got after
your innings. At any rate, I wish you the very best of luck."

With mixed feelings Gordon left the study. He valued the Chief's opinion
amazingly, but he could not help knowing that he did not deserve it. He
felt as though he had deceived the Chief. If only the Chief knew how he
had plunged along in his own way, an egotist, an iconoclast! And then
suddenly there came over him the shock of discovery, that everything in
life was so distorted and hidden by superficial coverings, that even the
wisest failed to discern between the true and the false.

He was able to see himself as he was, to realise the littleness of his
own performances. Yet the Chief who, if anyone "saw life steadily, and
saw it whole," who was always more ready to judge an action by the
intention than by the result--the Chief himself had not really seen how
far his achievements were below his possibilities. And if the Chief was
at times deceived by the superficial, how was he, a self-willed,
blundering boy, ever likely to be able to come to a true understanding?

He shrugged. There still remained a few hours in which to enjoy the
fruits of a success which, if it meant little to him, conveyed a good
deal to the world outside. And power is very sweet.

He tried to fling himself into the light-hearted atmosphere of rejoicing
in which the whole House was revelling, but he found it impossible. His
laughter was forced; yet his friends noticed no change in him; he was to
them just as he had always been.

Even Morcombe, who was to him more than other friends, had failed to
understand.

"It must be rather decent to be leaving in the way you are," he said, as
they were sitting in the games study before evening chapel. "I doubt if
you stopped on if you would ever quite equal the appropriateness of that
last innings."

"Yes," said Gordon, with a conscious irony, "it's certainly dramatic."

What use was it to try and show him what he was thinking? He had learnt
that it is better to leave illusions untouched.

Often in the past he had tried