"Damn!" said White.

Doe, flushed and dishevelled, picked himself out of his chair.

"That's what comes of bullying, Moles White. I'll pay for it. It was
my beastly fault!"

"No, you won't," said White.

"Don't presume to contradict me, Moles White, or I'll lick you! I
have stated that I'll pay for it."

"No," White decided. "We'll split the difference and go shags."

I felt the old fellow was not displeased at this compromise, for his
purse had its limitations. He withdrew from the scene and left us to
our confidential chat.

When he had gone, there set in a reaction from the excited
liveliness of his visit. Doe looked sadly through the broken pane
and said:

"Isn't Moles a corking old thing? The sort of chap who's naturally
good, and couldn't be anything else if he tried."

Something wistful in the words caused me to see a vision of the
gravel-path sweeping to the doorway of the baths.

"I say, Doe," I began, "have you ever felt that you'd like to
be--something different from the ordinary run?"

Doe swung round on me.

"Have I ever? Why, you know, Rupert, that I'm the most ambitious
person in the world. And, by Jove! I believe I might have done
something great--"

"_Might_ have done!" interrupted I, surprised that he should have
decided at sixteen that his life was earmarked for a failure.
"You'll probably live quite ten years more, so there's still time."

Doe turned again and sent his gaze through the broken window,
replying in a little while:

"Oh, I've lived long enough to know that I'm the sort that's
destined to make a mess of his life. I--oh, hang it, you wouldn't
understand..."

Evidently in Doe, as in me, his manhood had come down the corridor
of the future and met his childhood face to face. One minute before
this he was an irresponsible baby "cheeking" Moles White; now he was
the germinal man, borne down with the weight of life. He paused for
me to plead my understanding, and invite his confidence. But an
awkwardness held me dumb, and he was obliged to continue:

"I wish you could understand, because--Do you know, Rupert, why I
made it up with you this afternoon?" He came away from the window
and sat in a chair opposite me. "It was because I was glowing with a
new resolution. It was the rippingest feeling in the world. I--I had
just decided to cut with Freedham."

Up to this point I had been looking into his face, but now I turned
away. Instinctively I felt that, if he were going