with a succession of interesting guests. He had a very happy year,
devoting much attention to preaching, and doing a great deal of work
among the children, for which he had a quite singular gift. He had a
simple and direct way with them, equally removed from both petting and
authoritativeness. His own natural childlikeness came out--and indeed
all his life he preserved the innocence, the impulsiveness, the mingled
impatience and docility of a child more than any man I ever saw.

I remember a conversation I had with Hugh about this time. An offer had
been made to him, through me, of an important country living. He said
that he was extraordinarily happy at Kemsing but that he was too
comfortable--he needed more discipline. He said further that he was
beginning to find that he had the power of preaching, and that it was in
this direction rather than in the direction of pastoral activity that
his life was going to lie.

It was rather a pettish conversation. I asked him whether he might not
perhaps find the discipline he needed in doing the pastoral work which
did not interest him, rather than in developing his life on lines which
he preferred. I confess that it was rather a priggish line to take; and
in any case it did not come well from me because as a schoolmaster I
think I always pursued an individualistic line, and worked hard on my
own private basis of preferences rather than on the established system
of the school. But I did not understand Hugh at this date. It is always
a strain to find one whom one has always regarded as a boy, almost as a
child, holding strong and definitely matured views. I thought him
self-absorbed and wilful--as indeed he was--but he was pursuing a true
instinct and finding his real life.

He then received an invitation to become a mission preacher, and went to