Egremont received him in his study with gladness.  This man had impressed him powerfully, was winning an ever larger place in his affection.  He welcomed him as he would have done an old friend, for whose coming he had looked with impatience.

‘Do you smoke?’ he asked.

No, Gilbert did not smoke.  The money he formerly spent on this had long been saved for the purchase of books.  Egremont’s after-dinner coffee had to suffice to make cheer.  It was a little time before Grail could speak freely.  He had suffered from nervousness in undertaking this visit, and his relief at the simplicity of Egremont’s rooms, by allowing him to think of what he wished to say, caused him to seem absent.

‘I’ve already begun to jot down lists of obvious books,’ Egremont said.  ’I have a good general catalogue here, and I mean to go through it carefully.’

Gilbert was at length able to speak his thought.

’I ought to have said far more than I did in my letter, Mr. Egremont.  I tried to thank you, but I felt I might as well have left it alone.  I don’t know whether you have any idea what this change will mean to me.  It’s more than saving my life, it’s giving me a new one such as I never dared to hope for.’

‘I’m right glad to hear it!’ Walter replied, with his kindest look.  ’It comes to make up to me for some little disappointment in other things.  I’m afraid the lectures have been of very slight use.’

’I don’t think that.  I don’t think any of the class ’ll forget them.  It’s likely they’ll have their best effect in a little time; the men ’ll think back upon them.  Now Bunce has got much out of them, I believe.’

’Ah, Bunce!  Yes, I hoped something from him.  By-the-by, he is rather a violent enemy of Christianity, I think?’

’I’ve heard so.  I don’t know him myself, except for meeting him at the lectures.  Yes, I’ve heard he’s sometimes almost mad about religious subjects.’

Egremont told the story about Bunce’s child, which he had had from Mrs. Ormonde.  And this led him on to speak of his purpose in this new course of lectures.  After describing his plan: 

’And that matter of religion is one I wish to speak of most earnestly.  I think I can put forward a few ideas which will help a man like Bunce.  He wants to be made to see the attitude of a man who retains no dogma, and yet is far more a friend than an enemy of Christianity.  I think that lecture shall come first.’

He had not yet made ready his syllabus.  As before, he meant to send it to those whose names were upon his list.  His first evening would be at the beginning of February.

‘I shall try with Ackroyd again,’ he said.  ’Perhaps the subject this time will seem more attractive to him.’

Gilbert looked grave.

‘I’m anxious about Ackroyd,’ he replied.  ’He’s had private trouble lately, and I begin to be afraid it’s driving him into the wrong road.  He isn’t one that can easily be persuaded.  I wish you might succeed in bringing him to the lectures.’