e.
Only, while the pursuit of an ideal like this demanded entire liberty
of heart and brain, that old, staid, conservative religion of his
childhood certainly had its being in a world of somewhat narrow
restrictions. But then, the one was absolutely real, with nothing less
than the reality of seeing and hearing--the other, how vague, shadowy,
problematical! Could its so limited probabilities be worth taking into
account in any practical question as to the rejecting or receiving [49]
of what was indeed so real, and, on the face of it, so desirable?

And, dating from the time of his first coming to school, a great
friendship had grown up for him, in that life of so few
attachments--the pure and disinterested friendship of schoolmates. He
had seen Flavian for the first time the day on which he had come to
Pisa, at the moment when his mind was full of wistful thoughts
regarding the new life to begin for him to-morrow, and he gazed
curiously at the crowd of bustling scholars as they came from their
classes. There was something in Flavian a shade disdainful, as he
stood isolated from the others for a moment, explained in part by his
stature and the distinction of the low, broad forehead; though there
was pleasantness also for the newcomer in the roving blue eyes which
seemed somehow to take a fuller hold upon things around than is usual
with boys. Marius knew that those proud glances made kindly note of
him for a moment, and felt something like friendship at first sight.
There was a tone of reserve or gravity there, amid perfectly
disciplined health, which, to his fancy, seemed to carry forward the
expression of the austere sky and the clear song of the blackbird on
that gray March evening. Flavian indeed was a creature who changed
much with the changes of the passing light and shade about him, and was
brilliant enough under the early sunshine in [50] school next morning.
Of all that little world of more or less gifted youth, surely the
centre was this lad of servile birth. Prince of the school, he had
gained an easy dominion over the old Greek master by the fascination of
his parts, and over his fellow-scholars by the figure he bore. He wore
already the manly dress; and standing there in class, as he displayed
his wonderful quickness in reckoning, or his taste in declaiming Homer,
he was like a carved figure in motion, thought Marius, but with that
indescribable gleam upon it which the words of Homer actually
sugges