ys of my own prosperity.
Remember, I am not putting this forward as a sober plea. I know it
now to be false, self-cheating, the apology that every beggar makes
for himself, the specious argument that every poor man must resist
who would hold fast by his manhood. But there, with the wine in me
and the juices of good meat, the temptation took me at unawares and
mastered me as I had never allowed it to master me while I hungered.
I saw the world in a sudden rosy light; I felt that my past
sufferings had been unnecessary. I thought of Major Brooks--"

"Bless the man!" interjected Miss Belcher. "He's coming to the point
at last."

"Your pardon, ma'am. I will be briefer. I thought of Major Brooks.
I took a resolve there and then to extend my holiday; to walk hither
to Minden Cottage, and lay my case before him. The banquet had no
sooner broken up than I started. I reached Truro at nightfall, and
hired a bed there for sixpence. Early next morning I set forward
again. By this time the impulse had died out of me, but I still
walked forward, playing with my intention, always telling myself that
I could relinquish it and turn back to Falmouth, cheating--yes, I
fear deliberately cheating--myself with the assurance until more than
half the journey lay behind me, and to turn back would be worse than
pusillanimous. At St. Austell a carrier offered me a lift, and
brought me to Liskeard. Thence I walked forward again, and in the
late afternoon came in sight of Minden Cottage.

"I recognized it at once from Harry's description, and at first
I was minded to walk up and knock boldly at the front door.
But remembering also the lad's account of the garden and how the
Major would spend the best part of his day there--and partly, I
fancy, being nervous and uncertain with what form of words to present
myself--I pulled up at the angle of the house, where the lane comes
up alongside the garden wall to join the road, and halted, to collect
myself and study my bearings.

"The time was about twenty minutes after five, and the light pretty
good. But the lane is pretty well overgrown, as you know. I looked
down and along it, and it appeared to end in a tangle or brambles.
I turned my attention to the house, and was studying it through my
glasses, taking stock of its windows and chimneys, and generally
(as you might say) reckoning it up, along with the extent of its
garden, when, happening to take another glance down the lane, to run