YOUTH AND EARLY WRITINGS 79 



good stick, or carrying his hands in his pockets ; having the 

 reserve, together with confidence and even brusqueness, 

 of a strong individual spirit developing in isolation ; 

 sensitive, but from sheer concentration deaf and blind at 

 times to the respected gentleman who said, ' Good- 

 morning, Jefferies,' and hoped for ' Good-morning, sir,' 

 in return. Had not ' an inner and esoteric meaning ' 

 begun to reach him from the visible universe, with in- 

 definable aspirations, a deeper meaning everywhere ? 

 ' The sun burned with it ; the broad front of morning 

 beamed with it ; a deep feeling entered me while gazing 

 at the sky in the azure noon and in the starlit evening.'* 

 Such pebbles he had lifted from the brook, to combat the 

 world withal. 



♦ The Story of My Heart. 



