CHAPTER III




Like so many other gentlemen whose function in the world remains
indefinite, chiefly because of the patrimony they have inherited,
Denzil Quarrier had eaten his dinners, and been called to the Bar;
he went so far in specification as to style himself Equity
barrister. But the Courts had never heard his voice. Having begun
the studies, he carried them through just for consistency, but long
before bowing to the Benchers of his Inn he foresaw that nothing
practical would come of it. This was his second futile attempt to
class himself with a recognized order of society. Nay, strictly
speaking, the third. The close of his thirteenth year had seen him a
pupil at Polterham Grammar School; not an unpromising pupil by any
means, but with a turn for insubordination, much disposed to pursue
with zeal anything save the tasks that were set him. Inspired by
Cooper and Captain Marryat, he came to the conclusion that his
destiny was the Navy, and stuck so firmly to it that his father, who
happened to have a friend on the Board of Admiralty, procured him a
nomination, and speedily saw the boy a cadet on the "Britannia."
Denzil wore Her Majesty's uniform for some five years; then he tired
of the service and went back to Polterham to reconsider his bent and
aptitudes.

His father no longer dwelt in the old home, but had recently gone
over to Norway, where he pursued his calling of timber-merchant.