school. That is what we did: towards the end
we even set the fashion for a certain set; and a rank bad fashion it
was. But, in truth, we had no business there: on every point of
breeding we were outsiders. I suspect it was a glimmering consciousness
of this that made us hate each other from the first. We understood one
another too well. Oh, there's no mistake about it! Whatever we've
missed in life, you and I have hated."

He paused, eyeing me queerly. I kept my hands in my pockets. "Go on,"
I said.

"From Harrow we went to College--the same business over again.
We drifted, of course, into the same set; for already we had become
necessary to each other. We set the pace of that set--were its apparent
leaders. But in truth we were alone--you and I--as utterly alone as two
shipwrecked men on a raft. The others were shadows to us: we followed
their code because we had to be gentlemen, but we did not understand it
in the least. For, after all, the roots of that code lay in the
breeding and tradition of honour, with which we had no concern. To each
other you and I were intelligible and real; but as concerned that code
and the men who followed it by right of birth and nature, we were
looking-glass men imitating--imitating--imitating."

"We set the pace," said I. "You've allowed that."

"To be sure we did. We even modified the code a bit--to its hurt;
though as conscious outsiders we could dare very little. For instance,
the talk of our associates about women--and no doubt their thoughts,
too--grew sensibly baser. The sanctity of gambling debts, on the other
hand, we did nothing to impair: because we had money. I recall your
virtuous indignation at the amount of paper floated by poor W---- towards
the end of the great baccarat term. Poor devil! He paid up--or his
father did--and took his name off the books. He's in Ceylon now, I
believe. At length you have earned a partial right to sympathise: or.
would have if only you had paid up."

"Take care, Gervase."

"My good Sir, don't miss my point. Wasn't I just as indignant with W--?
If I'd been warned off Newmarket Heath, if I'd been shown the door of
the hell we're sitting in, shouldn't I feel just as you are feeling?
Try to understand!"

"You forget Elaine, I think."

"No: I do not forget Elaine. We left College: I to add money to money
in my father's office; you to display your accomplishments in spending
what your father had earned. That was