The rule was that only those in each class who had shown marked ability and knowledge of their subject at the “pass” examination should be recommended for re-examination for honours.  But to his surprise, when the list was read out, Hart’s name was not even amongst the successful candidates.  The Belfast students were thoroughly angry.  They felt the honour of the College was at stake; he had not done his share in upholding it, and they did not hesitate to tell him so.  Hart listened to their reproaches and answered never a word, but quietly went on, in the week that intervened between the pass examination and the final, with his preparations for the latter.  The ability to do so showed courage and character—­and he hath both in an unusual degree.

The very night before the “final” his reward came.  Some one hurried up his stairs and burst into his little sitting-room.  It was the Professor—­the famous George Lillie Craik—­who had set the papers for the Literature class.

“I come to apologize to you for a mistake,” he said very kindly, “and to explain why you have not been chosen for re-examination.  The truth is you answered so well at the ‘pass’ that I wrote your name on the first sheet, and nobody else’s—­as nobody came near you.  Unfortunately this page, almost blank, was mislaid, and that is how it happened that you, who should have been chosen before all the rest, were overlooked.  Now I want to ask you to come up for re-examination to-morrow, and, at the same time, wish you the best of luck.”

Robert Hart went—­and won.  He received a gold medal and L15 for this subject, a gold medal and L15 also for Logic and Metaphysics, and sufficient honour and glory besides to turn a less well-balanced head.

Meanwhile the choice of a future career naturally filled the young man’s thoughts.  First he seriously debated whether he should become a doctor, but gave up the idea when he found he came home from every operation imagining himself a sufferer from the disease he had just seen treated.  Next there was some talk of putting him into a lawyer’s office—­talk which came to nothing; and finally a lecture he heard on China at seventeen almost decided him to become a missionary to the heathen, but he soon abandoned this plan like the others.

After taking his B.A., he went instead to spend a post-graduate year at Belfast, and read for a Master’s degree—­this in spite of the fact that he was worn out with the strain of eighteen hours’ work a day, and used to see authors creeping in through the keyhole and wake in the night to find illuminated letters dancing a witches’ dance around his bed.

Then, just at the critical moment of his life—­in the spring of 1854—­the British Foreign Office gave a nomination for the Consular Service in China to each of the three Irish Queen’s Colleges, Belfast, Cork and Galway.  He immediately abandoned all idea of reading for a fellowship, and applied.  So did thirty-six others.  A competitive examination was announced, but when the College authorities saw Hart’s name among the rest, they gave the nomination to him, without examination.