he were a prophetic voice her future � and yet all the she judged him in return she said inwardly that he was narrow and unjust that he was below feeling those mental needs which were often the source of the wrong doing or absurdity that made her life a riddle to him she did not answer directly her heart was too full and she sat down leaning her arm on the table it was no use trying to make tom feel that she was near to him he always her her feeling under his words was complicated by the allusion to the last scene between her father and and at length that painful solemn memory sur mounted the immediate grievance no i she did not think of such things with frivolous indifference and tom must not accuse her of that she looked up at him with a grave earnest gaze and i can t make you think better of me tom by anything i can say but i am not so shut out from all your feelings as you believe me to be i see as well as you do that from our position with regard to philip s father � not on other grounds � it would be unreasonable � it would be wrong for us to entertain the idea of marriage and i have given up thinking of him as a lover i am telling you the truth and you have no right to me i have kept my word to you and you have never detected me in a falsehood i should not only not encourage i should carefully avoid any intercourse with philip on any other footing than that of quiet friendship you may think that i am unable to keep my resolutions but at least you ought not to treat me with hard contempt on the ground of faults that i have not committed yet well said tom softening under this appeal thb mill ok thb don t want to matters i think all things it will be best for you to see philip if wishes him to come to the house i believe what you at least you believe it yourself i know i can only warn you i wish to be as good a brother to you as will let me there was a little tremor in tom s voice as he uttered the last words and s ready affection came back with as sudden a glow as when they were children and bit their cake as a of she rose and laid her hand on tom s shoulder dear tom i know you mean to be good i know you have had a great deal to bear and have done a great deal i should like to be a comfort to you � not to vex you you don t think i m altogether naughty now do you tom smiled at the eager face his smiles were very pleasant to see when they did come for the grey eyes could be tender underneath the frown n o i may turn out better than you expect i hope you will and may i come some day and make tea for you and see this extremely small wife of bob s again yes but trot away now for no more time to spare said tom looking at his watch not to give me a kiss tom bent to kiss her cheek and then said � there i be a good girl i ve got a great deal to think of to day i m going to have a long consultation with my uncle this afternoon you ll come to aunt s to morrow we re going all to dine early that we may go there to tea you must come told me to say so oh i ve plenty else to do said tom pulling bell violently and bringing down the small bell rope i m frightened � i shall run away said a laughing retreat while tom with masculine philosophy flung the bell rope to the farther end of the room � not very far either a touch of human experience which i flatter myself will come home to the of not a few substantial or distinguished men who were once at an early stage of their rise in the world and were very large hopes in very small lodgings i chapter v showing that tom had opened the and now we ve settled this is business tom said mr that same afternoon as they were seated in the private room at the bank together there s another matter i want to talk to you about since you re likely to have rather smoky unpleasant time of it at for the next few weeks you ll want a good prospect of some sort to keep up your spirits tom waited less nervously than he had done on a former occasion in this apartment while his uncle took out his and gratified each with deliberate you see tom said mr at last throwing himself backward the world goes on at a pace now than it did when i was a young fellow why sir forty years ago when i was much such a as you a man expected to pull between the shafts the best part of his life before he got the whip in his hand the went and didn t alter quite so fast i d a best suit that lasted me six years everything was on a lower sir � in point of expenditure i mean it s this steam you see that has made the difference it drives on every wheel double pace and the wheel of fortune along with em as our mr guest said at the dinner he these things off wonderfully considering he s seen nothing of business i don t find with the change as some people do trade sir opens a man s eyes 