Yet Gerald Eversley did not soon emerge from the shadow of the dark weeks through which he had passed. He was as one who moves in an unseen world. Though there came to him good news of Harry’s convalescence, and at last a few lines written by Harry himself, he could not succeed in fixing his thoughts upon his ordinary duties. He became more dreamy than ever; his mind was ever far from the book that he held in his hand, and his place in form was so much below the first that Mr. Brandiston felt it necessary to send for him, to urge upon him the duty of using his time well and conferring credit upon the house, and to threaten him with punishment if his work in the coming examination did not make amends for his indolence in the term. Mr. Brandiston, though he made some allowance for Gerald’s failures during the time when the issue of his friend’s illness was trembling in the balance, was not a man capable of imagining or appreciating any romantic explanation of a long-continued indifference to classical scholarship. He told Gerald that, as he was himself going to take part in the examination of his form, he should be able to see what he was worth. Mr. Brandiston’s method of dealing with his examination papers was (like all Mr. Brandiston’s habits) simple and precise. The papers were printed in London. They were forwarded to St. Anselm’s by post in a carefully sealed packet. Mr. Brandiston would open the packet of papers when he was alone in his study, take out one paper in order to satisfy himself that there were no mistakes in the printing, count the number of the papers, divide them, if necessary, into several packets (also carefully sealed) for the use of such masters as might need them, then put back the paper which he had taken out into its packet, lock up all the papers in one of the drawers of his writing-table, of which he alone possessed the key, and leave them there until the day of examination. He kept the key of the writing-table in his purse. He had acted so for more than twenty years. He acted so now. Mr. Brandiston was not the master of Gerald Eversley’s form, but he was examining it in two subjects. One of these was Latin translation. The printed papers reached him in the usual way. It was not necessary to divide the papers into several packets; for he was going to sit with the form himself, and it was the only form to which the paper would be set. He took one paper (as usual) out of the packet, found that it was accurately printed, all his corrections of the proof having been made, and locked up the papers in his drawer. This was done on Tuesday evening. The paper was to be set on Friday morning.