How about you?"

    "I'm reading hard. I think it best to leave it alone." Hastie nodded, and they relapsed into a contented silence.

    "By the way, Smith," asked Hastie, presently, "have you made the acquaintance of either of the fellows on your stair yet?"

    "Just a nod when we pass. Nothing more."

    "Hum! I should be inclined to let it stand at that. I know something of them both. Not much, but as much as I want. I don't think I should take them to my bosom if I were you. Not that there's much amiss with Monkhouse Lee."

    "Meaning the thin one?"

    "Precisely. He is a gentlemanly little fellow. I don't think there is any vice in him. But then you can't know him without knowing Bellingham."

    "Meaning the fat one?"

    "Yes, the fat one. And he's a man whom I, for one, would rather not know." Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com

    LOT NO. 249

    4

    Abercrombie Smith raised his eyebrows and glanced across at his companion.

    "What's up, then?" he asked. "Drink? Cards? Cad? You used not to be censorious."

    "Ah! you evidently don't know the man, or you wouldn't ask. There's something damnable about him—something reptilian. My gorge always rises at him. I should put him down as a man with secret vices —an evil liver. He's no fool, though. They say that he is one of the best men in his line that they have ever had in the college."

    "Medicine or classics?"

    "Eastern languages. He's a demon at them. Chillingworth met him somewhere above the second cataract last long, and he told me that he just prattled to the Arabs as if he had been born and nursed and weaned among them. He talked Coptic to the Copts, and Hebrew to the Jews, and Arabic to the Bedouins, and they were all ready to kiss the hem of his frock-coat. There are some old hermit Johnnies up in those parts who sit on rocks and scowl and spit at the casual stranger. Well, when they saw this chap Bellingham, before he had said five words they just lay down on their bellies and wriggled. Chillingworth said that he never saw anything like it. Bellingham seemed to take it as his right, too, and strutted about among them and talked down to them like a Dutch uncle. Pretty good for an undergrad. of Old's, wasn't it?"

    "Why do you say you can't know Lee without knowing Bellingham?"

    "Because Bellingham is engaged to his sister Eveline. Such a bright little girl, Smith! I know the whole family well.