Presently he came out in a loose blouse and slippers, a short pipe in his mouth, and an old newspaper in his hand, and threw himself on the heathery scrub which met the shingle, within easy hail of the fishermen.  There he lay, the picture of free-and-easy, loafing, hand-to-mouth young England, “improving his mind,” as he shouted to them, by the perusal of the fortnight-old weekly paper, soiled with the marks of toddy-glasses and tobacco-ashes, the legacy of the last traveller, which he had hunted out from the kitchen of the little hostelry, and, being a youth of a communicative turn of mind, began imparting the contents to the fishermen as he went on.

“What a bother they are making about these wretched corn-laws!  Here’s three or four columns full of nothing but sliding scales and fixed duties.  Hang this tobacco, it’s always going out!  Ah, here’s something better—­a splendid match between Kent and England, Brown, Kent winning by three wickets.  Felix fifty-six runs without a chance, and not out!”

Tom, intent on a fish which had risen at him twice, answered only with a grunt.

“Anything about the Goodwood?” called out the third man.

“Rory O’More drawn.  Butterfly colt amiss,” shouted the student.

“Just my luck,” grumbled the inquirer, jerking his flies off the water, and throwing again with a heavy, sullen splash, and frightening Tom’s fish.

“I say, can’t you throw lighter over there?  We ain’t fishing for grampuses,” shouted Tom across the stream.

“Hullo, Brown! here’s something for you,” called out the reading man next moment.  “Why, your old master, Arnold of Rugby, is dead.”

Tom’s hand stopped half-way in his cast, and his line and flies went all tangling round and round his rod; you might have knocked him over with a feather.  Neither of his companions took any notice of him, luckily; and with a violent effort he set to work mechanically to disentangle his line.  He felt completely carried off his moral and intellectual legs, as if he had lost his standing-point in the invisible world.  Besides which, the deep, loving loyalty which he felt for his old leader made the shock intensely painful.  It was the first great wrench of his life, the first gap which the angel Death had made in his circle, and he felt numbed, and beaten down, and spiritless.  Well, well!  I believe it was good for him and for many others in like case, who had to learn by that loss that the soul of man cannot stand or lean upon any human prop, however strong, and wise, and good; but that He upon whom alone it can stand and lean will knock away all such props in His own wise and merciful way, until there is no ground or stay left but Himself, the Rock of Ages, upon whom alone a sure foundation for every soul of man is laid.

As he wearily laboured at his line, the thought struck him, “It may be all false—­a mere newspaper lie.”  And he strode up to the recumbent smoker.