“Then why didn’t Dunn make something of him?”
“Because the lad’s health forbade hard regular study. Otherwise he must have gone far.”
“That is more than one can believe.”
“I can only say that Dunn is reckoned a first-rate judge of a boy’s possibilities.”
“Unduly partial to his own pupils I believe. It was on his advice and due to his interference that my gardener’s eldest boy took his law final and became a solicitor, and I felt obliged to part with a good servant in consequence.”
“This poor fellow is hardly a pupil to be proud of. Dunn says he looks upon it as the tragedy of his own scholastic life that such powers as John Smith’s have borne no fruit. He had the most original mind of any boy he has known.”
“In other words the most cranky mind,” said the vicar impatiently. “I believe he has suffered all his life from hallucinations.”
“Dunn didn’t say that.”
“Had he heard of the course we were taking?”
“He didn’t mention the matter and I was careful not to refer to it. But I won’t answer for Parker.”