Watersprings | Page 7

was over, they went back to the other room. It was true
that, as Jack had said, Howard managed to make something pleasant

out of his rooms. The study was a big place looking into the court; it
was mostly lined with books, the bookcases going round the room in a
band about three feet from the floor and about seven feet high. It was a
theory of Howard's that you ought to be able to see all your books
without either stooping or climbing. There was a big knee-hole table
and half a dozen chairs. There was an old portrait in oils over the
mantelpiece, several arm-chairs, one with a book-rest. Half a dozen
photographs stood on the mantelpiece, and there was practically
nothing else in the room but carpets and curtains. Jack lit a cigarette,
sank into a chair, and presently said, "You must get awfully sick of the
undergraduates, I should think, day after day?"
"No, I don't," said Howard; "in fact I must confess that I like work and
feel dull without it--but that shows that I am an elderly man."
"Yes, I don't care about my work," said Jack, "and I think I shall get
rather tired of being up here before I have done with it. It's rather
pointless, I think. Of course it's quite amusing; but I want to do
something real, make some real money, and talk about business. I shall
go into the city, I think."
"I don't believe you care about anything but money," said Howard;
"you are a barbarian!"
"No, I don't care about money," said Jack; "only one must have
enough--what I like are REAL things. I couldn't go on just learning
things up till I was twenty-three, and then teaching them till I was
sixty-three. Of course I think it is awfully good of you to do it, but I
can't think why or how you do it."
"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