He sat in the corner of the railway carriage, passing in review the means of conquest at his disposal. His actual stock of scholarship, he knew, was well up to the required standard: he was as letter perfect in Latin, Greek, Mathematics, and Literature as hard study and remorseless coaching could make him. Everything needful was in his head--but could he get it out again? That was the question. The roaring world in which he would find himself, the strange examination-room, the quizzing professors--would these combine with his native shyness to seal the lips and cramp the pen of Robert Chalmers Fordyce? No--a thousand times no! He would win through! Robert set his teeth, braced himself, and kicked the man opposite. He apologised, attributing the discourtesy to the length of his legs--he stood about six feet three--and smiled so largely and benignantly, that the Man Opposite, who had intended to be thoroughly disagreeable, melted at once, and said it was the fault of the Company for providing such restricted accommodation, and gave Robert _The Scotsman_ to read. Robert thanked him, and, effacing himself behind _The Scotsman_,--though, for all the instruction or edification that his present frame of mind permitted him to extract from that coping-stone of Scottish journalism, he might as well have been reading the Koran,--returned to his thoughts. He collated in his mind the pieces of advice which had been bestowed upon him by his elders and betters before his departure. In brief, their collective wisdom came to this:-- His father had bidden him-- (a) To address all professors with whom he might come in contact as "Sir"; (b) To arrive at the Examination each morning at least five minutes before the advertised time; (c) To refrain from lending money to, or otherwise countenancing the advances of, persons of insinuating address who would doubtless accost him in the streets of Edinburgh. The Dominie had said-- "When in doubt, mind that practically everything in an examination governs the subjunctive. "If there is a _viva voce_, be sure and speak up and give your answers as though you were sure of them. They may be wrong, but on the other hand they may be right. Anyway, the one thing the examiners will not thole is a body that dithers. "Take a last keek at that Proposition--they _may_ call them Theorems, though--about the Square on the Hypotenuse. It hasn't been set for four years. "If you are given a piece of Greek Testament to translate, for mercy's sake do not be too glib. Dinna translate a thing until you are sure it is there. They have an unholy habit of leaving out a couple of verses some place in the middle, and you're just the one to tumble head-first into the _lacuna_. (I ken ye, Robbie!) "And whatever ye do, just bear in mind it's your only chance, and _grup_ on tae it! _Post est occasio calva_, laddie! And dinna disappoint an auld man that has taught ye all he kens himsel'!"