“Exactly: I remember now. You read all through Tit-Bits for a whole year, and the ‘D. T.’ pays you—£l,200, isn’t it? The task is a little dear at the price, it always seemed to me: but still, Tit-Bits—”
“It isn’t quite that, sir,” put in the youth; “it was for the ‘Encyclop—’”
(“I knew it was dear at the price,” the Tutor murmured.)
‘“—ædia Pananglica,’” continued the scholar. “My Scholarship is for reading that. I have it outside, in three packing-cases.”
“The Scholarship?” asked the Tutor, weakly.
“No,” said the scholar; “the ‘Encyclopædia Pananglica.’”
“Well,” the academic dignitary resumed, “and what have you read? To prepare yourself for a university career, I mean.”
“The ‘Encyc—’”
“Of course, of course; but anything else? I wish to know so as to advise you with respect to the direction of your studies. Have you, for instance, read any Homer?”
“Homer!” the youth replied—“Oh, yes, I know about Homer. There is a picture of Homer, drawn from life, and very well reproduced, among the illustrations of the article ‘Education.’ There is one there of Comenius, too. Homer and Comenius—”