Page 151 - of-human-bondage-

XXIII

hilip thought occasionally of the King’s School at Ter-
Pcanbury, and laughed to himself as he remembered
what at some particular moment of the day they were do-
ing. Now and then he dreamed that he was there still, and
it gave him an extraordinary satisfaction, on awaking, to
realise that he was in his little room in the turret. From his
bed he could see the great cumulus clouds that hung in the
blue sky. He revelled in his freedom. He could go to bed
when he chose and get up when the fancy took him. There
was no one to order him about. It struck him that he need
not tell any more lies.
It had been arranged that Professor Erlin should teach
him Latin and German; a Frenchman came every day to
give him lessons in French; and the Frau Professor had
recommended for mathematics an Englishman who was
taking a philological degree at the university. This was a
man named Wharton. Philip went to him every morning.
He lived in one room on the top floor of a shabby house. It
was dirty and untidy, and it was filled with a pungent odour
made up of many different stinks. He was generally in bed
when Philip arrived at ten o’clock, and he jumped out, put
on a filthy dressing-gown and felt slippers, and, while he
gave instruction, ate his simple breakfast. He was a short
man, stout from excessive beer drinking, with a heavy

1 0 Of Human Bondage