"When I left Oxford," he said--"as I told you before, I left what I
conceived to be slavery--that is, a submissively ordered routine of
learning in which there occurred nothing new--nothing hopeful--nothing
really serviceable. I mastered all there was to master, and carried
away 'honours' which I deemed hardly worth winning. It was supposed
then--most people would suppose it--that as I found myself the
possessor of an income of between five and six thousand a year, I would
naturally 'live my life,' as the phrase goes, and enter upon what is
called a social career. Now to my mind a social career simply means
social sham--and to live my life had always a broader application for
me than for the majority of men. So, having ascertained all I could
concerning myself and my affairs from my father's London solicitors,
and learning exactly how I was situated with regard to finances and
what is called the 'practical' side of life, I left England for Egypt,
the land where I was born. I had an object in view,--and that object
was not only to see my own old home, but to find out the whereabouts of
a certain great sage and mystic philosopher long known in the East by
the name of Heliobas."