refuge in his books.

_The competition_ fell on the next day, and he gained a small bursary.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

As it happened, no one but Alec had come up from Glamerton that year.
He did not know one of his fellow-students. There were very few in the
first class indeed who had had any previous acquaintance with each
other. But before three days were over like had begun to draw to like,
and opposites to their natural opposites. These mutual attractions,
however, were considerably influenced by the social sphere, as
indicated by style of dress, speech, and manners, in which each had
been accustomed to move. Some of the youths were of the lowliest
origin--the sons of ploughmen and small country shopkeepers;
shock-headed lads, with much of the looks and manners of year-old
bullocks, mostly with freckled faces and a certain general
irresponsiveness of feature, soon to vanish as the mental and nervous
motions became more frequent and rapid, working the stiff clay of their
faces into a readier obedience to the indwelling plasticity. Some, on
the other hand, showed themselves at once the aristocracy of the class,
by their carriage and social qualifications or assumptions. These were
not generally the best scholars; but they set the fashion in the cut of
their coats, and especially in the style of their neckerchiefs. Most of
them were of Highland families; some of them jolly, hearty fellows;
others affected and presumptuous, evidently considering it beneath them
to associate with the multitude.

Alec belonged to a middle class. Well-dressed, he yet knew that his
clothes had a country air, and that beside some of the men he cut a
poor figure in more than in this particular. For a certain superiority
of manner distinguished them, indicating that they had been accustomed
to more of the outward refinements of life than he. Now let Alec once
feel that a man was wiser and better than himself, and he was
straightway incapable of envying him any additional superiority
possible--would, in a word, be perfectly willing that he should both
wear a better coat and be a better scholar than himself. But to any one
who did not possess the higher kind of superiority, he foolishly and
enviously grudged the lower kinds of pre-eminence. To understand this
it must be remembered, that as yet he had deduced for himself no
principles of action or feeling: he was only a boy well-made, with
little goodness that he had in any way verified f