ch he had indulged in
that emetical luxury, his first cigar, two evenings previously.

"But really, sir, it is no lie," he urged; "I have not been smoking, and
I cannot tell where the smell comes from, unless it is my jacket, which
I wore in the holidays, when I sat in the room with my father when he
was having his cigar sometimes, and which has been in my box till the
other day. I am certain it cannot be my breath or anything else."

"Come nearer; no, your breath and hair are free from the taint. Well,
it may be as you say, and I am loth to suspect you of falsehood. But
listen to me, my boy; I am not assuming that you have been smoking,
mind, but only, as we are on the subject, that you might do so. It may
seem very arbitrary that the rules against it are so very severe,
considering how general the practice is, but they are wise for all that.
However harmless it may be for those who have come to their full
growth, smoking tobacco is certainly very injurious to lads who are not
matured. And indeed until the habit is acquired--it affects the
digestion and the memory of every one. Now, in these days of
competitive examinations, when every young fellow on entering life has
to struggle to get his foot on the first rung of the ladder, and all his
future prospects depend on his doing better than others, how
inexpressibly silly it is for him to handicap himself needlessly by
taking a narcotic which confuses his brain and impairs his memory, and
which affords him no pleasure whatever. I treat you as a rational
being, and appeal to your common sense, and speak as your friend. Now,
go."

Edwards was not such a ready liar as you may think him, though he
certainly prevaricated. He _had_ worn that jacket in his father's
smoking-room, and it _had_ lain in his box during the early part of the
term. He had not smoked again since the occasion commemorated, and that
was two days previously, and he persuaded himself that his tutor's
question applied to that day. But he knew in his heart that it didn't,
and with the kind tones of his tutor's voice ringing in his ears he felt
as if he ought to be kicked.

But when he went up to his room he found Saurin there, and any feelings
of self-reproach he had had soon melted away.

"What's up, now?" asked his friend. "You look as if you had seen a
ghost."

"I nearly got into an awful row, I can tell you!" replied Edwards. "My
tutor smelt my jacket of smoke while he was correcting