I
walked on and pretended not to see, till the combat got too exciting,
when I turned round and cheered him on to victory. It was the chaff of
the College at the time, but I could not help it. Then when he was a
little older the undergraduates found fresh names for us. They called me
Charon, and Leo the Greek god! I will pass over my own appellation with
the humble remark that I was never handsome, and did not grow more so as
I grew older. As for his, there was no doubt about its fitness. Leo at
twenty-one might have stood for a statue of the youthful Apollo. I never
saw anybody to touch him in looks, or anybody so absolutely unconscious
of them. As for his mind, he was brilliant and keen-witted, but not a
scholar. He had not the dulness necessary for that result. We followed
out his father's instructions as regards his education strictly enough,
and on the whole the results, especially in the matters of Greek and
Arabic, were satisfactory. I learnt the latter language in order to help
to teach it to him, but after five years of it he knew it as well as I
did--almost as well as the professor who instructed us both.
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