l chirped about my profession, and that bounder Jackson, who was
of our year, pretended that he had been your bosom friend. I got so
bored that I left early and wandered back to the club. Somebody was
making a racket in our old rooms in the High, windows open, you know,
and singing. I stopped to look at them, and then they started, 'Willie
brewed a peck o' maut,' and, 'pon my soul, I had to come away. Couldn't
stand it. It reminded me so badly of you and Arthur and old John
Lambert, and all the honest men that used to be there. It was
infernally absurd that I should have got so sentimental, but that wasn't
the worst of it. For I met Tony and he made me come round to a dinner,
and there I found people I didn't know from Adam drinking the old toasts
we started. Gad, they had them all. 'Las Palmas,' 'The Old Guard,'
'The Wandering Scot,' and all the others. It made me feel as low as an
owl, and when I got back to the club and saw poor old John's photograph
on the wall, I tell you I went to bed in the most wretched melancholy."

Lewis stared open-mouthed at George, the irrepressible, in this new
attitude. He, as the hardened traveller, had had little more than a
decent pang of home-sickness. His regret was far deeper and more real
than the sentimental article of commerce, and he could afford to be
almost gay while George sat in the depths.

"I'm coming home, and I'm not happy; you young men are going out, and
you have got the blues. There's no pleasing weak humanity. I say,
Haystoun, who's that old man?" Gribton's jovial looks belied his words.

Lewis mentioned a name for his host's benefit. The room was emptying
rapidly, for the Cercle dined early.

"Now for business," said Gribton, when a waiter had brought the game
course, and they sat in the midst of a desert of linen and velvet. "I
have given the thing up, but I spent twenty of my best years at Bardur.
So, as I am instructed to do all in my power to aid you, I am ready.
First, is it sport?

"Partly," said George, but Lewis's head gave denial.

"Because, if it is, I am not the best man. Well, then, is it
geographical? For if it is, there is much to be done."

"Partly," said Lewis.

"Then I take it that the residue is political. You are following the
popular avenue to polities, I suppose. Leave the 'Varsity very raw,
knock about in an unintelligent way for three or four years on some
frontier, then come home, go into the House, and pose as a specialist in
foreig