'Mr Carter has very kindly promised,' said Mrs Yule, 'to do his
best to hear of some position that would be suitable. It seems a
most shocking thing that a successful author should abandon his
career in this deliberate way; who could have imagined anything
of the kind two years ago? But it is clearly quite impossible for
him to go on as at present--if there is really no reason for
believing his mind disordered.'
A cab was summoned for Mrs Carter, and she took her leave,
suppressing her native cheerfulness to the tone of the occasion.
A minute or two after, Milvain left the house.
He had walked perhaps twenty yards, almost to the end of the
silent street in which his friends' house was situated, when a
man came round the corner and approached him. At once he
recognised the figure, and in a moment he was face to face with
Reardon. Both stopped. Jasper held out his hand, but the other
did not seem to notice it.
'You are coming from Mrs Yule's?' said Reardon, with a strange
smile.
By the gaslight his face showed pale and sunken, and he met
Jasper's look with fixedness.
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