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its cricket bats, fishing tackle, tennis rackets, and foot-
balls; the tailor from whom he had got clothes all through
his boyhood; and the fishmonger where his uncle whenev-
er he came to Tercanbury bought fish. He wandered along
the sordid street in which, behind a high wall, lay the red
brick house which was the preparatory school. Further on
was the gateway that led into King’s School, and he stood
in the quadrangle round which were the various buildings.
It was just four and the boys were hurrying out of school.
He saw the masters in their gowns and mortar-boards, and
they were strange to him. It was more than ten years since
he had left and many changes had taken place. He saw the
headmaster; he walked slowly down from the schoolhouse
to his own, talking to a big boy who Philip supposed was in
the sixth; he was little changed, tall, cadaverous, romantic
as Philip remembered him, with the same wild eyes; but the
black beard was streaked with gray now and the dark, sal-
low face was more deeply lined. Philip had an impulse to
go up and speak to him, but he was afraid he would have
forgotten him, and he hated the thought of explaining who
he was.
Boys lingered talking to one another, and presently some
who had hurried to change came out to play fives; others
straggled out in twos and threes and went out of the gate-
way, Philip knew they were going up to the cricket ground;
others again went into the precincts to bat at the nets. Phil-
ip stood among them a stranger; one or two gave him an
indifferent glance; but visitors, attracted by the Norman
staircase, were not rare and excited little attention. Philip

1 Of Human Bondage