"I suppose I'm not quite right in health just at
present. I seem to have lost my natural good spirits of late; the
worst of it is, I can't settle to my day's work as I used to. In
fact, I have just been applying for a new place, that of dispenser
at the All Saints' Hospital. If I get it, it would make my life a
good deal more independent. I should live in lodgings of my own, and
have much more time to myself."
Waymark encouraged the idea strongly. But his companion could not be
roused to the wonted cheerfulness. After a long silence, he all at
once put a strange question, and in an abashed way.
"Waymark, have you ever been in love?"
Osmond laughed, and looked at his friend curiously.
"Many thousand times," was his reply.
"No, but seriously," urged Julian.
"With desperate seriousness for two or three days at a time. Never
longer."
"Well now, answer me in all earnestness. Do you believe it possible
to love a woman whom in almost every respect you regard as your
inferior, who you know can't understand your thoughts and
aspirations, who has no interest in anything above daily needs?"
"Impossible to say. Is she good-looking?"
"Suppose she is not; yet not altogether plain.
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