"That was just the point," said Mr. Magnus. "He couldn't."
"Why couldn't he?"
"Weakness of character and waiting to see what would happen."
"He talked too much," she answered decisively. "But are there houses
in London with ponds in them ?"
"Lots," said Mr. Magnus. "Only the owners of the houses don't know
it. There is a big pond in the Chapel. That's what Thurston came out
of."
This was beyond Maggie altogether. An agreeable thing, however,
about Mr. Magnus was that he did not mind when you disliked his
work. He seemed to expect that you would not like it. He was
certainly a very unconceited man.
A more important and more interesting theme was Mr. Magnus' reason
for being where he was. What was he doing here? What led him to the
Chapel doors, he being in no way a religious man?
"It was like this," he told her. "I was living in Golders Green, and
suddenly one morning I was tired of the country that wasn't country,
and the butcher boy and the postman. So I moved as far into the
centre of things as I could and took a room in St. Martin's Lane
close at hand here. Then one evening I was wandering about, a
desolate Sunday evening when the town is given over to cats.
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