Some six mornings later, when the Professor returned their papers to
them, their minds were washed almost as clear of Plato and Thales as
were their bodies of yesterday's dust. The dates and doctrines, hastily
memorized to rattle off upon the great occasion, lay only upon the
surface of their minds, and after use they quickly evaporated. To their
pleasure and most genuine astonishment, the Professor paid them high
compliments. Bertie's discussion of the double personality had been the
most intelligent which had come in from any of the class. The
illustration of the intoxicated hack-driver who had fallen from his hack
and inquired who it was that had fallen, and then had pitied himself,
was, said the Professor, as original and perfect an illustration of our
subjective-objectivity as he had met with in all his researches. And
Billy's suggestions concerning the inherency of time and space in the
mind the Professor had also found very striking and independent,
particularly his reasoning based upon the well-known distortions of time
and space which hashish and other drugs produce in us. This was the
sort of thing which the Professor had wanted from his students: free
comment and discussions, the spirit of the course, rather than any
strict adherence to the letter. He had constructed his questions to
elicit as much individual discussion as possible and had been somewhat
disappointed in his hopes.

Yes, Bertie and Billy were astonished. But their astonishment did not
equal that of Oscar, who had answered many of the questions in the
Professor's own language. Oscar received seventy-five per cent for this
achievement--a good mark. But Billy's mark was eighty-six and Bertie's
ninety. "There is some mistake," said Oscar to them when they told him
; and he hastened to the Professor with his tale. "There is no
mistake," said the Professor. Oscar smiled with increased deference.