to be put in the same class as Sebastian, but was refused.

However, childhood so easily adapts itself to a fresh situation that
during the ensuing year, in which I myself advanced right gaily, not
only did I feel no lack, but I forgot my elder comrade. And at the
commencement of the next school year, when the two parallel classes,
through several boys leaving, were once more united, and I again found
myself No. 2 by the side of my one-time friend, the relations between us
were altogether altered, so thoroughly so, in fact, that our roles were
reversed. If formerly the younger had hung upon the elder's words, now
it was the other way about. If formerly Sebastian had shown the interest
in me that the half-grown man feels for a child, now I was too absorbed
by my own interests to wish for anything but a listener in him when I
unfolded the supposed wealth of my ideas and my soaring plans for the
future, which betrayed a boundless ambition. I needed a friend at this
stage only in the same sense as the hero in French tragedies requires a
confidant, and if I attached myself as before, wholly and completely to
him, it was for this reason. It is true that the other was still a good
deal in front of me in actual knowledge, so that there was much I had to
consult him about; otherwise our friendship would hardly have lasted;
but the importance of this superiority was slight, inasmuch as Sebastian
henceforward voluntarily subordinated himself to me altogether; indeed,
by his ready recognition of my powers, contributed more than anyone else
to make me conscious of these powers and to foster a self-esteem which
gradually assumed extraordinary forms.


XIX.

This self-esteem, in its immaturity, was of a twofold character. It was