 write a
letter to Lady Whitelaw. There's no need, you know, to go talking about this in
Twybridge. Just leave it to me, will you?«
    »It's not a subject I care to talk about, you may be sure. But I do hope you
won't do anything rash, Godwin.«
    »Not I. To tell you the truth, I'm not at all sorry to leave. It was a
mistake that I went in for the Arts course - Greek, and Latin, and so on, you
know; I ought to have stuck to science. I shall go back to it now. Don't be
afraid. I'll make a position for myself before long. I'll repay all you have
spent on me.«
    To this conclusion had he come. The process of mind was favoured by his
defeat in all the Arts subjects; in that direction he could see only the
triumphant Chilvers, a figure which disgusted him with Greeks, Romans, and all
the ways of literature. As to his future efforts he was by no means clear, but
it eased him greatly to have cast off a burden of doubt; his theorising
intellect loved the sensation of life thrown open to new, however vague,
possibilities. At present he was convinced that Andrew Peak had done him a
service. In this there was an indication of moral cowardice, such as commonly
connects itself with intense pride of individuality. He desired to shirk the
combat with Chilvers, and welcomed as an excuse for doing so the shame which
another temper would have stubbornly defied.
    Now he would abandon his B.A. examination, - a clear saving of money.
Presently it might suit him to take the B. Sc. instead; time enough to think of
that. Had he but pursued the Science course from the first, who at Whitelaw
could have come out ahead of him? He had wasted a couple of years which might
have been most profitably applied: by this time he might have been ready to
obtain a position as demonstrator in some laboratory, on his way perhaps to a
professorship. How had he thus been led astray? Not only had his boyish
instincts moved strongly towards science, but was not the tendency of the age in
the same direction? Buckland Warricombe, who habitually declaimed against
classical study, was perfectly right; the world had learned all it could from
those hoary teachers, and must now turn to Nature. On every hand, the future was
with students of the laws of matter. Often, it was true
