o the
classics or modern languages, but have put your whole heart into
mathematics; you have a natural talent for it, and you have had the
advantage of a good teacher. I may say so," he said, "for I was third
wrangler at Cambridge."

"You, sir!" Jack exclaimed in astonishment.

"Yes, lad, you may well be surprised at seeing a third wrangler a
village schoolmaster, but you might find, if you searched, many men who
took as high a degree, in even more humble positions. I took a
fellowship, and lived for many years quietly upon it; then I married,
and forfeited my fellowship. I thought, like many other men, that
because I had taken a good degree I could earn my living. There is no
greater mistake. I had absolutely no knowledge that was useful that way.
I tried to write; I tried to get pupils: I failed all round. Thirteen
years ago, after two years of marriage, my wife died; and in despair of
otherwise earning my bread, and sick of the struggle I had gone
through, I applied for this little mastership, obtained it, and came
down with Alice, then a baby of a year old. I chafed at first, but I am
contented now, and no one knows that Mr. Merton is an ex-fellow of St.
John's. I had still a little property remaining, just enough to have
kept Alice always at a good school. I do not think I shall stay here
much longer. I shall try to get a larger school, in some town where I
may find a few young men to teach of an evening. I am content for
myself; but Alice is growing up, and I should wish, for her sake, to get
a step up in the world again. I need not say, my lad, that I don't want
this mentioned. Alice and you alone know my story. So you see," he went
on more lightly, "I may say you have had a good teacher. Now, Jack, you
are very high up in mathematics. Far higher than I was at your age; and
I have not the slightest doubt that you will in a couple of years be
able to take the best open scholarship of the year at Cambridge, if you
try for it. That would keep you at college, and you might hope
confidently to come out at least as high as I did, and to secure a
fellowship, which means three or four hundred a year, till you marry.
But to go through the university you must have a certain amount of Latin
and Greek. You have a good two years, before you have to go up, and if
you devote yourself as steadily to classics as you have to mathematics,
you could get up enough to scrape through with. Don't give me any answer
now, Jack. The idea