I used to have high aspirations, but promises never kept
shattered most of my ideals. The hard knocks of life have made me a
fatalist, so now I shrug my shoulders. _"Che sara sara."_ I have had
to lead my own life and, all considered, I have enjoyed it. I have
crowded into thirty-nine years more sensations than fall to the lot of
the average half a dozen men.
Following the custom of our house, I was trained as a military cadet.
This military apprenticeship was followed by three years at a famous
_gymnasium_, which fitted me for one of the old classic universities
of Europe. And after spending six semesters there, I took my degrees
in philosophy and medicine. Not a bad achievement, I take it, for a
young chap before reaching his twenty-second birthday. I have always
been fond of study and had a special aptitude for sciences and the
languages. On one occasion I acquired a fair knowledge of Singalese
and Tamul in three months.
From the university I returned home. I had always been obstinate and
willful, not to say pigheaded, and being steeped in tales of wrongs
done to my house and country, and with the crass assurance of a young
sprig fresh from untrammeled university life, I began to give vent to
utterances that were not at all to the liking of the powers that were.
Soon making myself objectionable, paying no heed to their protests,
and one thing leading to another, my family found it advisable to send
me into utter and complete oblivion.
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