direct confidence which the boy showed in him. He criticised his
work unsparingly, he rallied him on his tastes, he snubbed him, but
all with a sense of real and instinctive sympathy which made
everything easy. The boy never resented anything that he said,
asked his advice, looked to him to get him out of any small
difficulties that arose. They were not very much together, and
mostly met only on official occasions. Howard was a busy man, and
had little time, or indeed taste, for vague conversation. Jack was
a boy of natural tact, and he treated all the authorities with the
same unembarrassed directness. Undergraduates are quick to remark
on any sort of favouritism, but only if they think that the
favoured person gets any unfair advantage by his intimacy. But
Howard came down on Jack just as decisively as he came down on
anyone else whose work was unsatisfactory. It was known that they
were a sort of cousins; and, moreover, Jack Sandys was generally
popular, though only in his first year, because he was free from
any touch of uppishness, and of an imperturbable good-humour.

But his own feeling for the boy surprised Howard. He did not think
him very interesting, nor had they much in common except a perfect
goodwill. It was to Howard as if Jack represented something beyond
and further than himself, for which Howard cared--as one might love
a house for the sake of someone that had inhabited it, or because
of events that had happened there. He tried vaguely to interest
Jack in some of the things he cared about, but wholly in vain. That
cheerful youth went quietly on his own way--modest, handsome,
decided, knowing exactly what he liked, with very material tastes
and ambitions, not in the least emotional or imaginative, and yet
with a charm of which all were conscious. He was bored by any
violent attempts at friendship, and quite content in almost