istry, and not without fascination for an intelligent boy.
Sometimes, it became difficult to follow Warde--members of the Alpine
Club said that often it was impossible--because he jumped where others
crawled. And he clipped words, phrases, thoughts so uncommonly short.

"You're beginning to see, Verney, eh? Scales crumbling away, my boy.
And strong sunshine hurts the eyes--at first. Black spots are dancing
before you. I know the little devils."

Or again--

"This remove will wipe a bit more off the debt, won't it? Ha, ha!
I've made you reckon up what you owe Mrs. Verney. But there are
others----"

"I'm awfully grateful to you, sir."

"Never mind me."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"New Testament; Matthew; twenty-fifth chapter--I forget verse.[3] Look
it up. Christ answers your question. Make life easier and happier for
some of the new boys. Pass on gratitude. Set it a-rolling. See?"

John had appetite for such talk, but Warde never gave much of it--half
a dozen sentences, a smile, a nod of the head, a keen look, and a
striding off elsewhere. But when John repeated what Warde had said to
Caesar, that young gentleman looked uneasy.

"Warde means well," he said; "and he's doing wonders with the Manor,
but I hope he's not going to make a sort of tin parson of you?"

"As if he could!" said John.

"You're miles ahead of me, Jonathan."

"No, no."

"I say--yes."

"Caesar," said John, in desperation, "perhaps we _are_ sliding apart,
but it isn't my fault, indeed it isn't. And think what it means
to--me. You've heaps of friends, and I never was first, I know that.
You can do without me, but I can't do without you."

"Dear old Jonathan." Caesar held out his hand, smiling.

"I'm a jealous ass, Caesar. And, as for calling me a parson," he
laughed scornfully, "why, I'd sooner walk with you, even if you were
the worst sinner in the world, than with any saint that ever lived."

The feeling in John's voice drove Caesar's gay smile from his face.
Did he realize, possibly, for the first time, that if John and he
remained friends, he might drag John down? Suddenly his face
brightened.

"Jonathan," he said gravely, "to please you, I'll not touch a card
again this term, and we'll have such good times this last three weeks
that you'll forget the rest of it."

'And what delights can equal those
That stir the spirit's inner deeps,
When one that loves but knows not reaps
A truth from one that