More than half his class fell from lukewarmness to patent indifference; they would probably present themselves until the end of the course, but it was little likely that they would recommence with him after Christmas.
He was obliged to recognise the utter absence of idealism from all save Grail--unless Bunce might be credited with glimmerings of the true light.

Yet intellectually he held himself on firm ground.

To have discovered one man such as Grail was compensation for failure with many others, and the project of the library was at all times a vista of hope.

But Egremont was not of those who can live on altruism.

His life of loneliness irked him, irked him as never yet.