ng I know
for certain--that I shall get out of this cursed country as soon as
possible.'

They parted, and Harvey walked westward. He had no reason for hurry; as
usual, the tumult of the world's business passed him by; he was merely
a looker-on. It occurred to him that it might be a refreshing and a
salutary change if for once he found himself involved in the anxieties
to which other men were subject; this long exemption and security
fostered a too exclusive regard of self, an inaptitude for sympathetic
emotion, which he recognised as the defect of his character. This
morning's events had startled him, and given a shock to his
imagination; but already he viewed them and their consequences with a
self-possession which differed little from unconcern. Bennet
Frothingham, no doubt, had played a rascally game, foreseeing all along
the issues of defeat. As to his wife and daughter, it would be strange
if they were not provided for; suffer who might, they would probably
live on in material comfort, and nowadays that was the first
consideration. He was surprised that their calamity left him so
unmoved; it showed conclusively how artificial were his relations with
these persons; in no sense did he belong to their world; for all his
foolish flutterings, Alma Frothingham remained a stranger to him, alien
from every point of view, personal, intellectual, social. And how many
of the people who crowded to her concert last night would hear the news
this morning with genuine distress on her account? Gratified envy would
be the prevailing mood, with rancorous hostility in the minds of those
who were losers by Bennet Frothingham's knavery or ill-fortune. Hugh
Carnaby's position called for no lament; he had a sufficient income of
his own, and would now easily overcome his wife's pernicious influence;
with or without her, he would break away from a life of corrupting
indolence, and somewhere beyond seas 'beat the British drum'--use his
superabundant vitality as nature prompted.

After all, it promised to clear the air. These explosions were
periodic, inevitable, wholesome. The Britannia Loan, &c, &c, &c, had
run its pestilent course; exciting avarice, perturbing quiet industry
with the passion of the gamester, inflating vulgar ambition, now at
length scattering wreck and ruin. This is how mankind progresses.
Harvey Rolfe felt glad that no theological or scientific dogma
constrained him to a justification of the laws of life.

At luncht