heaven, supposing I eventually did succeed in slipping in, knowing
that he, the lovable old scamp, was burning for ever in hell?

How could Janet, taking it that she reformed and thus escaped
damnation, be contented, knowing the father she loved doomed to
torment? The heavenly hosts, so I argued, could be composed only of
the callous and indifferent.

I wondered how people could go about their business, eat, drink and be
merry, with tremendous fate hanging thus ever suspended over their
heads. When for a little space I myself forgot it, always it fell
back upon me with increased weight.

Nor was the contemplation of heaven itself particularly attractive to
me, for it was a foolish paradise these foolish voices had fashioned
out of their folly. You stood about and sang hymns--for ever! I was
assured that my fear of finding the programme monotonous was due only
to my state of original sin, that when I got there I should discover I
liked it. But I would have given much for the hope of avoiding both
their heaven and their hell.

Fortunately for my sanity I was not left long to brood unoccupied upon
such themes. Our worldly affairs, under the sunshine of old Hasluck's
round red face, prospered--for awhile; and one afternoon my father,
who had been away from home since breakfast time, calling me into his
office where also sat my mother, informed me that the long-talked-of
school was become at last a concrete thing.

"The term commences next week," explained my father. "It is not
exactly what I had intended, but it will do--for the present. Later,