A NEW EXPERIENCE.
For the next six weeks Alec Lindsay’s life was one unvarying round of lectures, and preparation for lectures. For recreation he had football on the College Green, long walks on Saturday afternoons, and long debates with his friend Cameron. The debates, however, were not very frequent, for the Highlander was working twelve hours a day.
‘I mean to get a first-class in surgery,’ he said to Alec one Saturday night, as the two sat over their pipes in Alec’s sitting-room; ‘and then perhaps the Professor will ask me to be an assistant. If he does, my fortune is made, for I know my work.’
‘Ay, that’s the great thing,’ said Alec absently. ‘Don’t you ever go to church, Cameron?’ he added abruptly.
‘As seldom as I can,’ said the other, with a side look at his companion; ‘but don’t take me for a guide.’
‘I can’t help it,’ replied the lad, still gazing into the fire; ‘we all take our neighbours for guides, whether we acknowledge it or not.’
‘More or less, no doubt.’
‘Don’t you think one ought to go to church?’
‘How can I tell? Every man for himself, my lad.’
‘That won’t do,’ answered Alec, rousing himself and facing his friend; ‘right’s right, and wrong’s wrong; what is right for one man must be right for every man—under the same circumstances, I mean.’