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inevitable just because it had happened, he could not help
himself. He was utterly miserable. He could not sleep. He
remembered all the ways he had wasted money during the
last few years. His head ached dreadfully.
The following evening there came by the last post the
statement of his account. He examined his pass-book. He
found that when he had paid everything he would have
seven pounds left. Seven pounds! He was thankful he had
been able to pay. It would have been horrible to be obliged
to confess to Macalister that he had not the money. He was
dressing in the eye-department during the summer session,
and he had bought an ophthalmoscope off a student who
had one to sell. He had not paid for this, but he lacked the
courage to tell the student that he wanted to go back on his
bargain. Also he had to buy certain books. He had about five
pounds to go on with. It lasted him six weeks; then he wrote
to his uncle a letter which he thought very business-like; he
said that owing to the war he had had grave losses and could
not go on with his studies unless his uncle came to his help.
He suggested that the Vicar should lend him a hundred and
fifty pounds paid over the next eighteen months in monthly
instalments; he would pay interest on this and promised to
refund the capital by degrees when he began to earn money.
He would be qualified in a year and a half at the latest, and
he could be pretty sure then of getting an assistantship at
three pounds a week. His uncle wrote back that he could do
nothing. It was not fair to ask him to sell out when every-
thing was at its worst, and the little he had he felt that his
duty to himself made it necessary for him to keep in case

0 Of Human Bondage