The other, of whom there has been casual mention, was Joseph Bunce.  Of spare frame and with hollow cheeks which suggested insufficiency of diet, he yet had far more of manliness in his appearance than the portly Bower.  You divined in him independence enough, and of worthier origin than that which secretly inflated his neighbour.  His features were at first sight by no means pleasing; their coarseness was undeniable, but familiarity revealed a sensitive significance in the irregular nose, the prominent lips, the small chin and long throat.  Egremont had now and then caught a light in his eyes which was warranty for more than his rough tongue could shape into words.  He often appeared to have a difficulty in following the lecture; would shrug nervously, and knit his brows and mutter.  Whenever he noticed that, Egremont would pause a little and repeat in simpler form what he had been saying, with the satisfactory result that Bunce showed a clearer face and jotted something on his dirty note-book with his stumpy pencil.

Gilbert Grail we know.  It was impossible not to remark him as the one who followed with most consecutive understanding, even if his countenance had not declared him of higher grade than any of those among whom he sat.  It had needed only the first ten minutes of the first lecture to put him at his ease with regard to Egremont’s claims to stand forward as a teacher; the preliminary meeting, indeed, had removed the suspicions suggested by Ackroyd.  To him these evenings were pure enjoyment.  He delighted in this subject, and had an inexpressible pleasure in listening continuously to the speech of a cultivated man.  Had the note-books of the class been examined (Egremont had strongly advised their use), Gilbert’s jottings would probably have alone been found of substantial value, seeing that he alone possessed the mental habit necessary for the practice.  Bunce’s would doubtless have come next, though at a long distance; a Carlylean editor might have disengaged from them many a rudely forcible scrap of comment.  Bower’s pages would have smelt of the day-book.  It was to Grail that Egremont mentally directed the best things he had to say; not seldom he was repaid by the quick gleam of sympathy on that grave interesting face.

The remaining five hearers were average artisans of the inquiring type; they followed with perseverance, though at times one or the other would furtively regard his watch or allow his eyes to stray about the room.  They had made a bargain, and were bent on honourably carrying out their share in it.  But Egremont already began to doubt whether he was really fixing anything in their thoughts.  How were they likely to serve him for the greater purpose whereto this instruction was only preliminary?  When he looked forward to that, he had to fix his eyes on Grail and forget the others.  He was beginning to regret that the choice of those to whom his invitations were sent had depended upon Bower; another man might have aided him more