We were deep in the night.  I had not a single idea ready for delivery.  I could have told him, that wishing was a good thing, excess of tobacco a bad, moderation in speech one of the outward evidences of wisdom; but Ottilia’s master in the Humanities exacted civility from me.

‘Indeed,’ I said, ’I have few thoughts to communicate at present, Herr Professor.  My German will fail me as soon as I quit common ground.  I love my country, and I do not reckon it as perfect.  We are swillers, possibly gluttons; we have a large prosperous middle class; many good men are to be found in it.’

His discharges of smoke grew stifling.  My advocacy was certainly of a miserable sort.

’Yes, Herr Professor, on my way when a boy to this very place I met a thorough good man.’

Here I related the tale of my encounter with Captain Welsh.

Dr. Julius nodded rapidly for continuations.  Further! further!

He refused to dig at the mine within me, and seemed to expect it to unbosom its riches by explosion.

’Well, Herr Professor, we have conquered India, and hold it as no other people could.’

‘Vide the articles in the last file of English newspapers!’ said he.

‘Suppose we boast of it.’

‘Can you?’ he simulated wonderment.

‘Why, surely it’s something!’

’Something for non-commissioned officers to boast of; not for statesmen.  However, say that you are fit to govern Asiatics.  Go on.’

’I would endeavour to equalize ranks at home, encourage the growth of ideas . . .’

’Supporting a non-celibate clergy, and an intermingled aristocracy?  Your endeavours, my good young man, will lessen like those of the man who employed a spade to uproot a rock.  It wants blasting.  Your married clergy and merchandized aristocracy are coils:  they are the ivy about your social tree:  you would resemble Laocoon in the throes, if one could imagine you anything of a heroic figure.  Forward.’

In desperation I exclaimed, ’It ’s useless!  I have not thought at all.  I have been barely educated.  I only know that I do desire with all my heart to know more, to be of some service.’

‘Now we are at the bottom, then!’ said he.

But I cried, ’Stay; let me beg you to tell me what you meant by calling me a most fortunate, or a most unfortunate young man.’

He chuckled over his pipe-stem, ‘Aha!’

‘How am I one or the other?’

‘By the weight of what you carry in your head.’

‘How by the weight?’

He shot a keen look at me.  ’The case, I suspect, is singular, and does not often happen to a youth.  You are fortunate if you have a solid and adventurous mind:  most unfortunate if you are a mere sensational whipster.  There ’s an explanation that covers the whole.  I am as much in the dark as you are.  I do not say which of us two has the convex eye.’

Protesting that I was unable to read riddles, though the heat of the one in hand made my frame glow, I entreated to have explicit words.  He might be in Ottilia’s confidence, probing me—­why not?  Any question he chose to put to me, I said, I was ready to answer.