He rose in anguish, and stood looking about him as if aid might
somewhere be visible.
Presently there was a knock at the front door, and on opening he
beheld the vivacious Mr Carter. This gentleman had only made two
or three calls here since Reardon's marriage; his appearance was
a surprise.
'I hear you are leaving town for a time,' he exclaimed. 'Edith
told me yesterday, so I thought I'd look you up.'
He was in spring costume, and exhaled fresh odours. The contrast
between his prosperous animation and Reardon's broken-spirited
quietness could not have been more striking.
'Going away for your health, they tell me. You've been working
too hard, you know. You mustn't overdo it. And where do you think
of going to?'
'It isn't at all certain that I shall go,' Reardon replied. 'I
thought of a few weeks--somewhere at the seaside.'
'I advise you to go north,' went on Carter cheerily. 'You want a
tonic, you know. Get up into Scotland and do some boating and
fishing--that kind of thing. You'd come back a new man. Edith and
I had a turn up there last year, you know; it did me heaps of
good.
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