“I suppose I don’t care about real things,” said Howard.

“No, I can’t quite make you out,” said Jack with a smiling air, “because of course you are quite different from the other dons—­ nobody would suppose you were a don—­everyone says that.”

“It’s very kind of you to say so,” said Howard, “but I am not sure that it is a compliment—­a tradesman ought to be a tradesman, and not to be ashamed of it.  I’m a sophist, of course.”

“What’s a sophist?” said Jack.  “Oh, I know.  You lectured about the sophists last term.  I don’t remember what they were exactly, but I thought the lecture awfully good—­quite amusing!  They were a sort of parsons, weren’t they?”

“You are a wonderful person, Jack!” said Howard, laughing.  “I declare I have never had such extraordinary things said to me as you have said in the last half-hour.”

“Well, I want to know about people,” said Jack, “and I think it pays to ask them.  You don’t mind, do you?  That’s the best thing about you, that I can say what I think to you without putting my foot in it.  But you said you were going to lecture me about my sins—­come on!”

“No,” said Howard, “I won’t.  You are not serious enough to-day, and I am not vexed enough.  You know quite well what I think.  There isn’t any harm in you; but you are idle, and you are inquisitive.  I don’t want you to be very different, on the whole, if only you would work a little more and take more interest in things.”

“Well,” said Jack, “I do take interest—­that’s the mischief; there isn’t time to work—­that’s the truth!  I shall scrape through the Trip, and then I shall have done with all this nonsense about the classics; it really is humbug, isn’t it?  Such a fuss about nothing.  The books I like are those in which people say what they might say, not those in which they say what they have had days to invent.  I don’t see the good of that.  Why should I work, when I don’t feel interested?”

“Because whatever you do, you will have to do things in which you are not interested,” said Howard.

“Well, I think I will wait and see,” said Jack.  “And now I must be off.  I really have said some awful things to you to-day, and I must apologise; but I can’t help it when I am with you; I feel I must say just what comes into my head; I must fly; thank you for lunch; and I truly will do better, but mind only for you, and not because I think it’s any good.”  He put down the cat with a kiss.  “Good-bye, Mimi,” he said; “remember me, I beseech you!” and he hurried away.

Howard sat still for a minute or two, looking at the fire; then he gave a laugh, got up, stretched himself, and went out for a walk.