LIMITATIONS.
“Is it,” he asked, "because of the little tiny spark of the Divinewhich men have within them that we care for them, or because theyare human not divine, limited not immeasurable, faulty notperfect?”
And the Professor of Ignorance, as usual, sat silent, wishing tohear what the others had to say about it, rather than to speakhimself.
The Professor of Ignorance.”
Limitations.
A NOVEL.
BY
E. F. BENSON,
AUTHOR OF “DODO,” ETC.
THIRD EDITION.
LONDON:
A. D. INNES & CO.,
BEDFORD STREET.
1896.
LIMITATIONS.
| CHAPTER I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., VIII., IX., X., XI., XII., XIII., XIV., XV., XVI., XVII., XVIII., EPILOGUE. |
CHAPTER I.
Tom Carlingford was sitting at his piano, in his rooms at King’sCollege, Cambridge, playing the overture to Lohengrin with the mostindifferent success. It was a hot night in the middle of August, and hewas dressed suitably, if not elegantly, in a canvas shirt, a pair offlannel trousers, and socks. He had no tie on, and he was smoking ameerschaum bowl of peculiarly spotted appearance, through a longcherry-wood stem. The remains of a nondescript meal laid coldly on thetable, and a cricket-bag on the hearth-rug, seemed to indicate that hehad been away playing cricket, and had got back too late for hall. Thepiano was almost as disreputable in appearance as its master, for itstood in a thorough draught, between the windows opening on to the frontlawn and the door opening into the smaller sitting-room, and theguttering candle was making a fine stalactite formation of wax on D inalt. Several good pictures and college photographs hung on the walls,and between the windows stood a small bookcase,{2} suspiciously tidy. Tomplayed with the loud pedal down, and treated his hands in the way inwhich we are told we should bestow our alms. D in alt had stuck fast toC sharp and C, and the effect, when either of these three notes wasplayed, was extremely curious. However, he finished the overture after afashion, and got up.
“This is a red-letter day for Wagner,” he remarked. “What do you do withpipes when they g