"You have been at the old
work, I suppose--overdoing it, as usual!"
"No, I have been working very little for these last few days. The truth
is, I have not been able to work. The divine afflatus wouldn't come down
upon me. There are times when a man's brain seems to be made of melted
butter. Mine has been like that for the last week or so."
"I thought you were going back to your fishing village near Oxford."
"No, I was not in spirits for that. I have dined two or three times in
Cavendish Square, and have been made much of, and have contrived to
forget my troubles for a few hours."
"You talk of your troubles as if you were very heavily burdened; and
yet, for the life of me, I cannot see what you have to complain of,"
Gilbert said wonderingly.
"Of course not. That is always the case with one's friends--even the best
of them. It's only the man who wears the shoe that knows why it pinches
and galls him. But what have you been doing since I saw you last?"
"I have been in Hampshire."
"Indeed!" said John Saltram, looking him full in the face. "And what took
you into that quarter of the world?"
"I thought you took more interest in my affairs than to have to ask that
question. I went to look for Marian Holbrook,--and I found her."
"Poor old fellow!" Mr. Saltram said gently.
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