the worst of these conscientious Johnnies; they get fifty pounds a year left them for study, and study they will, even if it means an early tomb." 

 Somebody went by, humming— 

 "Hallo!" said George. "Who's going to be 'Queen o' the May' to-day?" 

 "That's Gray," whispered Matthews; "see him skip up the step?" 

 George turned in time to catch the graceful back-kick of a tweed leg as somebody disappeared through the door. 

 "Seems to have an elastic step this morning." 

 "It's the Leytonstone air," said Matthews; "you get it like that off Wanstead Flats." 

 "P'raps so," said George; "I don't think he got that off Wanstead Flats. I think I know where he got it." 

 "Where?" 

 "You get on with your work, and don't be inquisitive." 

 Gray's exuberance had calmed down towards the middle of the day, and when he started out in search of lunch his face wore a more thoughtful expression. The elasticity of his step was not at all noticeable, if it existed. It is doubtful if one in twenty of the people he met would have guessed that he had recently come into five hundred pounds a year, or even fivepence. 

 In Queen Victoria Street he stopped on the kerbstone, and looked about him. Hungry clerks and typists flitted by in quest of milk and buns. Gray chinked his money and crossed the road. Before turning up a narrow side street he stopped again, and looked round. Then he carefully walked on. 

 On his left, three doors up, was a tea-shop. Gray looked in, and passed on. A couple of warehouses and a restaurant came next, and a narrow alley beyond. Gray turned into this alley, and followed its tortuous length for some distance until it emptied itself and Gray into a sort of paved square, where the noise of traffic was reduced to a steady hum. There was one noticeable house in the square, a dull-looking building with a projecting lamp. People passed in and out. It was a public-house. 

 Instead of hurrying by with averted gaze, Gray stopped and glanced sideways at the bill of fare 

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