protested good-naturedly.

Had he been familiar with the alumni of the Hall, he could have made
his argument strong by personal examples unlike Anthony Cobbens, but he
made his defence of the college graduate general, answering the
well-known objections to him in the well-known way. It was evident
that Emmet regarded colleges and universities as identified with
entrenched privilege everywhere, and with corruption in local politics
particularly. It was inevitable that he should have been influenced in
this view by his own concrete experiences. The iron had entered into
his soul, and its scar was not to be effaced by an evening's
conversation. Not infrequently life will be interpreted to a
passionate nature by one or two persons, be they friends or enemies.
To Emmet, Cobbens and the bishop loomed much larger in the general
scheme of things than their intrinsic importance warranted. It was
interesting, having heard the bishop's opinion of Emmet, to get Emmet's
view of the bishop, a view that was by no means without a certain
reluctant respect and admiration. Leigh felt that his prejudice was
impassioned, rather than intellectual, and would yield gradually to a
change of circumstances, whereas the bishop would never revise his
judgment. He was impressed also by the fact that Miss Wycliffe could
never fully appreciate the conditions that had produced the man whose
cause she had chosen to champion, or see that he must needs be a
radical, if he thought at all, at least in the present stage of his
development. Leigh's own experience in life enabled him to look into
both camps with comprehension, for he belonged to the comparatively
small class of the cultivated poor, and his struggles had been no less
intense than those of the man before him, though for different ends.
The effect of what he said was conciliatory, but his visitor was merely
convinced that this particular college graduate was an exception to the