may again bring it under your notice that he was considering the necessity of adding a indeed i have some letters in which reference is made � if you would like to see them mr opened a drawer and taking out a bundle of letters he sought for one finding it he read a few lines and passed it across the table to then proposed that mr should write to miss asking her to come up to london to meet her cousin at his mr agreed to do this but after some further conversation in which the excellence of s feelings was evident mr was moved to advise to jump into the train and go down and see the young lady himself it is a delicate matter sir but if you run down as i advise and claiming relationship tell the young lady that you intend to settle three hundred a year upon her i venture to say you will please her more than if you fortune invited up here and settled six hundred a year mr threw himself back in his chair and a twinkle ran round the corner of his eyes and if you should ever feel inclined to call in the three hundred you so generously propose to settle on the young lady you will find that � mr finished his sentence with a laugh did not doubt that mr was right but he was a shy reserved man and felt he could not go down to and introduce himself to those two ladies mr tried to persuade him and finally the matter was mr promised to write to miss telling her of her cousin s desire to see her and asking her to send a trap to meet him at the station on monday if took the half past four train from victoria he would arrive at south water at six on saturday night went to see the last performance of on sunday he took out to dinner they dined at the the dinner was copious and expensive the wine was the but they both felt that their dinners in little had given them more pleasure hu vain fortune tried to talk to her about brown s new drama which they had just heard would follow divorce but he was unable to his thoughts from and the ladies he was going to visit to morrow evening they felt like two school fellows one of whom is leaving school the link that had bound them had snapped henceforth their ways lay separate and they were sad at parting just as school friends are sad to both of them their friendship seemed strangely there was a restlessness in their souls and yet both knew that they were not in love both felt however that things should have turned out differently the girl thought he should have finished the play he thought he ought to have married her you are not rich he said you offered to lend me money once i want to lend you some now oh yes she said with a sudden laugh five shillings wasn t it it doesn t matter what the sum was we were both very poor then and i m still poorer now all the more reason why you should allow vain fortune me to help you allow me to write you a for a hundred pounds i assure you i can afford it i think i had better not i have some things i can sell but you must not sell your things indeed you must allow me i think rd rather not i shall be all right � that is to say if ford me for brown s new piece and i think he will but if he doesn t then she said with a sweet and natural smile write to you we have been excellent friends comrades � have we not yes we have indeed and i shall never forget there is my address that will always find me next day he bade good by to the whole house � to mrs to and once more to he caught up his rug and a moment after he was driving toward victoria before he reached the railway station the last realities of the lodging house the good on the began to fade and he again lost himself in the and of the new life which chance had so unexpectedly thrust upon him like one in vain fortune he was prepared for everything anything might happen he had ceased to calculate had surrendered himself up to nature and puzzled by the of her he listened to the rattle of the train and took a vague joy in watching the white steam going out and over the rich country just beginning to into summer this house this property these ladies he wondered what they would say what he should say and in extreme regretted not having given the fuller instructions when he got out of the train a smart footman touched his hat and a fast trotting animal took him rapidly through a small red town into a fine open country the outlines of which were to grow dim in the setting light chapter vii next morning lay late in bed tempted by the of the sheets and the bright air and color of the room about half past ten he found his way into the dining room and remembering street he smiled when the butler proposed chicken on the there were a pale ham and a rich brown tongue mrs poured out a cup of coffee for him and boiled two eggs by lighting a spirit lamp beneath a pretty silver spirit apparatus that stood on the dining room table he asked after and was told she had quite recovered and was now in the flower garden seeing he had all he wanted she begged him to excuse her then his thoughts went to whom he imagined among the and 