f the two young men took off his
soft hat and set it beside him so that he could let the wind brush
through his thick red hair. He held himself very straight, his slender
body taut with solemn exultation.

"If only one could do something with it," he said; "eat it--hug it--get
inside of it somehow--belong to it. It hurts--this gaping like an
outsider. Look now--one shade of purple upon another. Isn't it
unendurably beautiful? But if one could write a sonnet--or a sonata--or
paint a picture---- That's where the real artist has the pull over us
poor devils who can only feel things. He wouldn't just stand here. He'd
get out his fountain pen or his paint-box and make it all his for ever
and ever. Think of Whistler now--what he would do with it."

"I can't," Stonehouse said. "Who's Whistler?"

Cosgrave laughed in anticipation of his little joke. "Nobody, old
fellow. At least, he never discovered any bugs."

The wind snatched up his forgotten hat and it sailed off up river into
the darkness like a large unwieldy bird. He looked after it ruefully.

"That was a new hat. I'll have to go home without one, and the Pater
will think I've been in a drunken brawl, and there'll be a beastly row."

"That's the one thing he'll never believe. Well, I don't care. It'll be
over soon. If I've passed that exam. I'll get away and he won't be able
to nag me any more. And you, do think I've passed, don't you,
Stonehouse?"

"If you didn't imagine your answers afterwards."

"Honour bright, I didn't. I believe I did a lot better, really. You
know, I'm so awfully happy to-night I'd believe anything. It's queer how
this old river fits in with one's moods, isn't it? Last time we were
here I wanted to drown myself, and there it was ready to hand, as it
were--offering eternal oblivion--and all that. I thought of all the
other fellows who had drowned themselves, and felt no end cheered up.
And now it makes me think of escape--of getting away from
everything--sailing to strange, new countries----"

"The last time you were here," Stonehouse said, "you'd just come out of
the exam. If you really answered as you say you did, there was no reason
for your wanting to drown yourself."

"But I did. You're such a distrustful beggar. You think I just imagine
things. No, I'll tell you what it was--I didn't care. There I was--I'd
swotted and swotted. I'd thought that if only I could squeeze through
I'd be the happiest man on ear