The events of the day had increased his sensibility to such impressions.

Had he triumphed over Bruno Chilvers, he could have behaved this evening with a larger humanity.
The fight for entrance--honest British stupidity, crushing ribs and rending garments in preference to seemly order of progress--enlivened him somewhat, and sent him laughing to his conquered place; but before the curtain rose he was again depressed by the sight of a familiar figure in the stalls, a fellow-student who sat there with mother and sister, black-uniformed, looking very much a gentleman.

'I, of course, am not a gentleman,' he said to himself, gloomily.

Was there any chance that he might some day take his ease in that orthodox fashion?
Inasmuch as it was conventionality, he scorned it; but the privileges which it represented had strong control of his imagination.

That lady and her daughter would follow the play with intelligence.