“I believe he meant that I take on the colour of other people and have none of my own.  Then he told me to go and murder somebody.”

“I wouldn’t do that, Denis,” laughed the bishop.  “Murders are so dreadfully vulgar.”

“He said it might make a man of me.  He forgets that I’m not quite his age.”

“You had better not tell him that!  Any other advice?”

“Nothing new.  He said I made a mistake in paying attention to what human beings said and did, and that I ought to forsake mankind for a while, and art and books and so on.  You know the way he talks!  He said it would give me a stronger individuality if I came into contact with nature and thought things out for myself instead of listening to other people.  He advised me to sit among the rocks at midnight and in the hot afternoons, conversing with the genii of earth and air.  It would correct my worldly perspective.  I think he may be right, in a way.  There is something in it.  So I asked him to climb into the hills with me, then and there, in order to get into touch with elemental Powers.  He said he thought highly of my character, but as to climbing about in this heat—­he said he’d be damned if he would.  Those were his very words.  He wanted to sleep.  He was too old for that sort of thing.”

“Very sensible, I’m sure.”

“You think so?  Because then—­then he told me that you were the proper person for an expedition of that kind.  He suggested I should come and see you about it at once—­it would allow him time to get his usual afternoon nap.  That is why I’m here.  So do!  It isn’t so very hot, once you get used to it.  We are sure to see something funny.”

“Oh!”

This, thought the bishop, was a pretty example of that doctrine of benevolent egotism which Keith had expounded to him once or twice.  A very pretty example!

“He said that?”

Denis nodded.

The notion was distasteful to Mr. Heard.  To go out into this torrid sunshine. . . .  He, too, was not exactly young; moreover, he was still rather delicate—­he needed all the rest he could get.  He was looking forward with positive delight to the coming hours in his cool bedroom.

“You really want me to climb to the top of a mountain at this hour of the day and sit there in the heat, waiting for some wretched demon to reveal himself?  Aren’t you a little too old for that sort of thing?  Come now!  Does it strike you as a reasonable proposition?  With the thermometer at seventy-eight in this room?”

“Keith said you liked nothing better.  He said you might take offence if I didn’t ask you to come.”

He seemed to be disappointed.