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which made the other masters suspect him of flippancy.
Finding time for everything in his busy day, he was able
at certain intervals to take separately for a quarter of an
hour or twenty minutes the boys whom he was preparing
for confirmation. He wanted to make them feel that this
was the first consciously serious step in their lives; he tried
to grope into the depths of their souls; he wanted to instil in
them his own vehement devotion. In Philip, notwithstand-
ing his shyness, he felt the possibility of a passion equal to
his own. The boy’s temperament seemed to him essentially
religious. One day he broke off suddenly from the subject
on which he had been talking.
‘Have you thought at all what you’re going to be when
you grow up?’ he asked.
‘My uncle wants me to be ordained,’ said Philip.
‘And you?’
Philip looked away. He was ashamed to answer that he
felt himself unworthy.
‘I don’t know any life that’s so full of happiness as ours.
I wish I could make you feel what a wonderful privilege it
is. One can serve God in every walk, but we stand nearer to
Him. I don’t want to influence you, but if you made up your
mind—oh, at once—you couldn’t help feeling that joy and
relief which never desert one again.’
Philip did not answer, but the headmaster read in his
eyes that he realised already something of what he tried to
indicate.
‘If you go on as you are now you’ll find yourself head of
the school one of these days, and you ought to be pretty safe

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