instructed him in the Black
Art: a gaunt Mephistophelian sort of individual, who our subject half
thought was a changeling. Our subject has not quite got over the idea
yet, though for practical social purposes he calls him Lucian
Oldershaw. Our subject met Lucian Oldershaw. 'That night,' as
Shakespeare says, 'there was a star.'

"These three persons soon became known through the length and breadth
of St. Paul's School as the founders of a singular brotherhood. It
was called the J.D.C. No one, we believe, could ever have had better
friends than did the hero of this narrative. We wish that we could
bring before the reader the personality of all the Knights of that
eccentric round table. Most of them are known already to the reader.
Even the subject himself is possibly known to the reader. Bertram,
who seemed somehow to have been painted by Vandyck, a sombre and
stately young man, a blend of Cavalier and Puritan, with the physique
of a military father and the views of an ethical mother and a soul of
his own which for sheer simplicity is something staggering. Vernede
with an Oriental and inscrutable placidity varied every now and then
with dazzling agility and Meredithian humour. Waldo d'Avigdor who
masks with complete fashionable triviality a Hebraic immutability of
passion tried in a more ironical and bitter service than his Father
Jacob. Lawrence and Maurice Solomon, who show another side of the
same people, the love of home, the love of children, the meek and
malicious humour, the tranquil service of a law. Salter who shows how
beautiful and ridiculous a combination can be made of the most
elaborate mental cultivation and artistic sensibility and omniscience
with a receptiveness and a humility extraordinary in any man. These
were his friends. May he be forgiven for speaking of them at length
and with pride? Some day we hope the reader may know them all. He
knew these people; he knew their friends. He heard Mildred Wain say
'Blogg' and he thought it was a funny name. Had he been told that he
would ever pronounce it with the accents of tears and passion he
would have said, in his pride, that the name was not suitable for
that purpose. But there are _oukh eph' emin_ [Greek characters in
original]. . . .

"He went for a time to an Art School. There he met a great many
curious people. Many of the men were horrible blackguards: he was not
exactly that: so they naturally found each other interesting. He went
through some ra