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CHAPTER III.

GENERAL HOMAGE.

CANON ALDRED was a man of mark in Cambridge, and the more so since his ways were not Cambridge ways. As a University man, he had not much distinguished himself; his friends said he could easily have done so had he not wasted his mental energies in so many directions; but others had their doubts of this. We often hear it said of notorious swindlers that if they had shown in some honest calling one-half of the ability they displayed in embezzlement, or some other branch of the criminal sciences, they could have earned a competence, or even wealth ; but this is only one of those platitudes which

commonplace people make use of under the impression that they are saying something philosophic. The remark is of a piece with that which describes a first-rate whist-player as a mathematician spoilt. The truth is, many men have natural gifts, for particular things, which are nevertheless only small things; they are very good in the back streams of intelligence, but the main stream is too strong for them, and in reality they exhibit their sagacity in keeping out of it. Some men, again, do many things well, but still not very well. well. If they were women, they would draw and paint and play the piano, and even read Dante (not with very much pleasure) in the original; and they would be called accomplished.' An accomplished man, however, is not a desirable person; whereas the folks I have in my mind are generally very agreeable. Their sympathies, though not deep, are wide; they have neither cant nor caste; they see the Beautiful and the

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True, but without attempting to define them, and they are almost always goodnatured.

Canon Aldred was all this, and more. He was kind-hearted to a fault; confiding to the verge of weakness; and a gentleman to the core. Though not wealthy, he had some private property which, with the Canonry, gave him a considerable income, and he spent it generously. He was not an Amphytrion, because he had not the means for it, but he entertained his friends with a hospitality the graciousness of which atoned for any lack of splendour; and his friends were of various kinds. Some of them were now staying at Cambridge, drawn thither, as much by the attraction of his presence as by those of the place itself, great as they are during the May

term.

There was Professor Pelski, of Moscow, though not 'late' of Moscow; he had had to fly for his life from Russia on account of his

political opinions more than thirty years ago, and during that time had been hand and glove with half the Revolutionists of Europe.

There was Mr. Flit; the most special of special correspondents, whose vacations could never be called 'long,' since they only lasted while England was not at war with this or that savage tribe or country; at the first beat of the drum he was off, with his note-book and metallic pencil, to Timbuctoo or Terra del Fuego, but in the meantime mingled in society as though privation had never driven. him to eat anything worse than his boots.

There was also just now in Cambridge Mr. Fluker, the great Eastern financier; the Canon had met him in Egypt when engaged in one of his most successful operations' upon the Khedive, and found him much to his taste. Mr. Fluker's experiences had all the charm of novelty for him, and with characteristic modesty he felt a considerable respect for this man who had made his mark-which was,

however, a pretty big hole for the reception of other people's property-in a world of which he himself knew nothing. And Mr. Fluker, to whom the respect of a fellow creature was an unaccustomed treat, reciprocated the other's liking.

All these gentlemen had received invitations to view the 'procession' from the Canon's rooms; but it did not include any suggestion that they should attend the College chapel. He had asked them to do that upon another occasion, thinking that the peculiarity of the scene might have an attraction for them; but the vespers,' as Mr. Flit entitled them, had not, so far as these gentlemen were concerned, been a success. guests of the Canon they had all occupied prominent places in the stalls, but without a due understanding of the sublimity or responsibilities of that exalted position. It was probably the first time that Mr. Fluker had been to a place of worship since his baptism

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