?«
    »Yes, I feel sure of it.«
    There was silence. Christian beat the ground with his stick.
    »Your state of mind, then,« he said at length, »is more like my own than I
imagined. I, too, have wavered for a long time between literature and science,
and now at last I have quite decided - quite - that scientific study is the only
safe line for me. The fact is, a man must concentrate himself. Not only for the
sake of practical success, but - well, for his own sake.«
    He spoke lazily, dreamily, propped upon his elbow, seeming to watch the
sheep which panted at a few yards from him.
    »I have no right,« he pursued, with a shadow of kindly anxiety on his
features, »to offer you advice, but - well, if you will let me insist on what I
have learned from my own experience. There's nothing like having a special line
of work and sticking to it vigorously. I, unfortunately, shall never do anything
of any account, - but I know so well the conflict between diverging tastes. It
has played the deuce with me, in all sorts of ways. At Zurich I utterly wasted
my time, and I've done no better since I came back to England. Don't think me
presumptuous. I only mean - well, it is so important to - to go ahead in one
line.«
    His air of laughing apology was very pleasant. Godwin felt his heart open to
the kind fellow.
    »No one needs the advice more than I,« he replied. »I am going back to the
line I took naturally when I first began to study at all.«
    »But why leave Whitelaw?« asked Christian, gently.
    »Because I dislike it - I can't tell you why.«
    With ready tact Moxey led away from a subject which he saw was painful.
    »Of course there are many other places where one can study just as well.«
    »Do you know anything of the School of Mines in London?« Godwin inquired,
abruptly.
    »I worked there myself for a short time.«
    »Then you could tell me about the - the fees, and so on?«
    Christian readily gave the desired information, and the listener mused over
it.
    »Have you any friends in London?« Moxey asked, at length.
    »No. But I don't think that matters. I shall work all the harder.«
    »Perhaps
