did not
oppose the carrying out of my own plans, he by no means urged me to
exertion. When I came home he received me very affectionately, and
expressed his satisfaction in my return. "Of course," he said, "I am not
glad that you are disappointed, Philip, or that your health is broken;
but otherwise it is an ill wind, you know, that blows nobody good; and I
am very glad to have you at home. I am growing an old man--"

"I don't see any difference, sir," said I; "everything here seems exactly
the same as when I went away--"

He smiled, and shook his head. "It is true enough," he said; "after we
have reached a certain age we seem to go on for a long time on a
plane, and feel no great difference from year to year; but it is an
inclined plane, and the longer we go on the more sudden will be the
fall at the end. But at all events it will be a great comfort to me to
have you here."

"If I had known that," I said, "and that you wanted me, I should have
come in any circumstances. As there are only two of us in the world--"

"Yes," he said, "there are only two of us in the world; but still I
should not have sent for you, Phil, to interrupt your career."

"It is as well, then, that it has interrupted itself," I said rather
bitterly; for disappointment is hard to bear.

He patted me on the shoulder, and repeated, "It is an ill wind that blows
nobody good," with a look of real pleasure which gave me a certain
gratification too; for, after all, he was an old man, and the only one in
all the world to whom I owed any duty. I had not been without dreams of
warmer affections, but they had come to nothing--not tragically, but in
the ordinary way. I might perhaps have had love which I did not want but
not that which I did want,--which was not a thing to make any unmanly
moan about, but in the ordinary course of events. Such disappointments
happen every day; indeed, they are more common than anything else, and
sometimes it is apparent afterwards that it is better it was so.

However, here I was at thirty stranded, yet wanting for nothing,--in a
position to call forth rather envy than pity from the greater part of my
contemporaries; for I had an assured and comfortable existence, as much
money as I wanted, and the prospect of an excellent fortune for the
future. On the other hand, my health was still low, and I had no
occupation. The neighborhood of the town was a drawback rather than an
advantage. I felt myself tempted, instead of t