eve, cared for his brother as much as he was capable of caring
for any one but himself, repeated a good story with which he had been
enlivening the Major, and I did what I could to keep up the talk.
Derrick meanwhile put away the chessmen, and lighted the Major's candle.
He even managed to force up a laugh at Lawrence's story, and, as he
helped his father out of the room, I think I was the only one who
noticed the look of tired endurance in his eyes.

Chapter V.

"I know
How far high failure overtops the bounds
Of low successes. Only suffering draws
The inner heart of song, and can elicit
The perfumes of the soul."
Epic of Hades.

Next week, Lawrence went off like a hero to the war; and my friend--also
I think like a hero--stayed on at Bath, enduring as best he could the
worst form of loneliness; for undoubtedly there is no loneliness so
frightful as constant companionship with an uncongenial person. He had,
however, one consolation: the Major's health steadily improved, under
the joint influence of total abstinence and Bath water, and, with the
improvement, his temper became a little better.

But one Saturday, when I had run down to Bath without writing
beforehand, I suddenly found a different state of things. In Orange
Grove I met Dr. Mackrill, the Major's medical man; he used now and then
to play whist with us on Saturday nights, and I stopped to speak to him.

"Oh! you've come down again. That's all right!" he said. "Your friend
wants someone to cheer him up. He's got his arm broken."

"How on earth did he manage that?" I asked.

"Well, that's more than I can tell you," said the Doctor, with an odd
look in his eyes, as if he guessed more than he would put into words.
"All that I could get out of him was that it was done accidentally. The
Major is not so well--no whist for us to-night, I'm afraid."

He passed on, and I made my way to Gay Street. There was an air of
mystery about the quaint old landlady; she looked brimful of news when
she opened the door to me, but she managed to 'keep herself to herself,'
and showed me in upon the Major and Derrick, rather triumphantly I
thought. The Major looked terribly ill--worse than I had ever seen
him, and as for Derrick, he had the strangest look of shrinking and
shame-facedness you ever saw. He said he was glad to see me, but I knew
that he lied. He would have given an