Shall I confess it? Pitiable and melancholy as was Hazlet's course, I liked him so little as to feel for him far less than I otherwise should have done. His worst error never caused me half the pain of Kennedy's most venial fault. Must I then tell a sad tale of Kennedy too--my brave, bright, beautiful, light-hearted Kennedy, whom I always loved so well? May I not throw over the story of his college days the rosy colourings of romance and fancy, the warm sunshine of prosperity and hope? I wish I might. But I am writing of Camford--not of a divine Utopia or a sunken Atalantis. Bruce, so far from being troubled by his own evil deeds, was proud of a success which supported a pet theory of his infidel opinions. He made no sort of secret of it, and laughed openly at the fool whom he had selected for his victim. "But after all," said Brogten, who had plenty of common sense, "your triumph was very slight." "How do you mean? I chose the most obtrusively religious man in Saint Werner's, and, in the course of a very short time, I had him, of his own will, roaring drunk." "And what's the inference?" "That what men call religion is half cant, half the accident of circumstances." "Pardon me, you're out in your conclusion; it only shows that Hazlet was a hypocrite, or at the best a weak, vain, ignorant fellow. The very obtrusiveness and uncharitableness of his religion proved its unreality. Now I could name dozens of men who would see you dead on the floor rather than do as you have taught Hazlet to do--men, in fact, with whom you simply _daren't_ try the experiment." "_Daren't_! why not?" "Why, simply because they breathe such a higher and better atmosphere than either you or I, that you would be abashed by their mere presence." "Pooh! I don't believe it," said Bruce, with an uneasy laugh; "mention any such man." "Well, Suton for instance, or Lord De Vayne." "Suton is an unpleasant fellow, and I shouldn't choose to try him, because he's a bore. But I bet you what you like that I make De Vayne drunk before a month's over." "Done! I bet you twenty pounds you don't."