88 IDLEHURST : 



Willows; to shout cheerily across the quad; to saunter 

 after Hall with soul at rest. He nods pleasantly at 

 my fritillaries, and we pace on, talking of Oxford an 

 odd confusion of my antique memories and his keen 

 present. Gervase has a compound nature ; all the 

 strength of youth which can back up a spurt or draw 

 a tutor, together with the spirit which even in stress 

 of Schools, loves books, philosophises a little, and 

 keenly perceives and enjoys beauty of outward 

 things. He will take his Second in Greats, and 

 probably end in the Civil Service, with a little re- 

 viewing, perhaps even an occasional slim volume 

 of verse. 



He accepts the forecast ; but demurs to the volume 

 of verse. " I don't take it as seriously as that," he 

 says ; " I only experiment a little in rhymes and 

 metres, and so on. I think, now inspiration seems 

 to be fairly dead, we might give rather more time 

 to perfecting the form. If Laureates write rot, they 

 might at least contrive with a little practice not to 

 get the stress on the unaccented syllables all over 

 the place. We ought to let the sense go for a bit 

 (it would be a great relief all round) and try for 

 sound, where we might do something. I'm sure 

 there's a great deal to be done with alliteration I 

 don't mean the 



