"But I did not tell all my dream," he resumed; "not quite all. As I passed over into heaven, I thought I looked down here again. I could see the places in the world; I could see this same Oxford city. I saw the men here in it, sir, at their cards and their dice and their drink; at all their thoughtless folly. Spending their days and nights without a care for the end, without as much as thinking whether they need a Saviour or not. And oh, their condition troubled me! I seemed to understand all things plainly then, sir. And I thought if they would but once lift up their hearts to Him, even in the midst of their sin, He would take care of them even then, and save them from it in the end--for He was tempted Himself once, and knows how sore their temptations are. In my distress, I tried to call out and tell them this, and it awoke me." "Do you think he ought to talk, sir?" whispered Nanny. But nothing more could harm him now. My time was up, and I ought to be going. Poor Charley spoke so imploringly--almost as though the thought of it startled him. "Not yet, sir; not yet! Stay a bit longer with me. It is for the last time." And I stayed: in spite of my word passed to Dr. Applerigg. It seems to me a solemn thing to cross the wishes of the dying. So the clock went ticking on. Mrs. Cann stole in and out, and a lodger from below came in and looked at him. Before twelve all was over. I went hastening home, not much caring whether the proctor met me again, or whether he didn't, for in any case I must go to Dr. Applerigg in the morning, and tell him I had broken my promise to him, and why. Close at the gates some one overtook and passed me. It was Tod. Tod with a white face, and his hair damp with running. He had come from Sophie Chalk's. "What is it, Tod?" I laid my hand upon his arm in speaking. He threw it off with a word that was very like an imprecation. "What _is_ the matter?" "The devil's the matter. Mind your own business, Johnny." "Have you been quarrelling with Everty?" "Everty be hanged! The man has betaken himself off." "How much have you lost to-night?" "Cleaned-out, lad. That's all." We got to our room in silence. Tod turned over some cards that lay on the table, and trimmed the candle from a thief. "Tasson's dead, Tod." "A good thing if some of us were dead," was the answer. And he turned into his chamber and bolted the door. III. Lunch-time at Oxford, and a sunny day. Instead of college and our usual fare, bread-and-cheese from the buttery, we were looking on the High Street from Mrs. Everty's rooms, and about to sit down to a snow-white damasked table with no end of good things upon it. Madam Sophie had invited four or five of us to lunch with her.