'
'You haven't come enough in contact with him. At all events, I
can't explain his change of manner in any other way. But I'm
sorry for him; I am, indeed. At a hospital? I suppose Carter has
given him the old job again?'
'Don't know. Biffen doesn't talk very freely about it; there's a
good deal of delicacy in Biffen, you know. A thoroughly
good-hearted fellow. And so is Reardon, I believe, though no
doubt he has his weaknesses.'
'Oh, an excellent fellow! But weakness isn't the word. Why, I
foresaw all this from the very beginning. The first hour's talk I
ever had with him was enough to convince me that he'd never hold
his own. But he really believed that the future was clear before
him; he imagined he'd go on getting more and more for his books.
An extraordinary thing that that girl had such faith in him!'
They parted soon after this, and Milvain went homeward, musing
upon what he had heard. It was his purpose to spend the whole
evening on some work which pressed for completion, but he found
an unusual difficulty in settling to it. About eight o'clock he
gave up the effort, arrayed himself in the costume of black and
white, and journeyed to Westbourne Park, where his destination
was the house of Mrs Edmund Yule.
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