y out his part.
It would not be for long; soon he would have his own book to be
complimented upon and to explain. Meanwhile he worked hard at
'Illusion,' until he came to have a considerable surface acquaintance
with it; he knew the names of all the more important characters in it
now, and hardly ever mixed them up; he worked out most of the
allusions, and made a careful analysis of the plot and pedigrees of
some of the families. It was much harder work than reading law, and
quite as distasteful; but then it had to be done if he meant to
preserve appearances at all.

His fame had penetrated to St. Peter's, where his fellow-masters
treated him with an unaccustomed deference, only partially veiled by
mild _badinage_ on the part of the younger men; while even the boys
were vaguely aware that he had distinguished himself in the outer
world, and Mark found his authority much easier to maintain.

'How's that young rascal--what's his name? Langton?--the little scamp
who said he called me "Prawn," but not "Shellfish," the impident
fellow! How's _he_ getting on, hey?' said Mr. Shelford to Mark one day
about this time.

Mark replied that the boy had left his form now, but that he heard he
was doing well, and had begun to acquire the graceful art of
verse-making. 'Verse-making? ay, ay; is he indeed? You know, Ashburn,
I often think it's a good thing there are none of the old Romans alive
now. They weren't a yumorous nation, taken as a whole; but I fancy
some of our prize Latin verses would set the stiffest of 'em
sniggering. And we laugh at "Baboo English," as they call it! But you
tell Langton from me, when you see him, that if he likes to try his
hand at a set of elegiacs on a poor old cat of mine that died the
other day, I'll look 'em over if he brings them to me after school
some day, and if they're what I consider worthy of the deceased's many
virtues, I'll find some way of rewarding him. She was a black Persian
and her name was "Jinks," but he'll find it Latinise well as "Jinxia,"
tell him. And now I think of it,' he added, 'I never congratulated you
on the effort of _your_ muse. It's not often I read these things now,
but I took your book up, and--maybe I'm too candid in telling you
so--but it fairly surprised me. I'd no idea you had it in you.'

Mark found it difficult to hit the right expression of countenance at
such a compliment, but he did it. 'There are some very fine things in
that book, sir,' continued Mr. Shel