him
with blank face, he spoke certain wrathful words which long rankled in
that worthy's mind. At home he kept sullen silence.

No, not to such men as he--poor, and without social recommendations.
Besides, he was growing too old. In literature, as in most other
pursuits, the press of energetic young men was making it very hard for
a veteran even to hold the little grazing-plot he had won by hard
fighting. Still, Quarmby's story had not been without foundation; it was
true that the proprietor of The Study had for a moment thought of Alfred
Yule, doubtless as the natural contrast to Clement Fadge, whom he would
have liked to mortify if the thing were possible. But counsellors had
proved to Mr Rackett the disadvantages of such a choice.

Mrs Yule and her daughter foresaw but too well the results of this
disappointment, notwithstanding that Alfred announced it to them with
dry indifference. The month that followed was a time of misery for all
in the house. Day after day Yule sat at his meals in sullen muteness; to
his wife he scarcely spoke at all, and his conversation with Marian did
not go beyond necessary questions and remarks on topics of business.
His face became so strange a colour that one would have thought him
suffering from an attack of jaundice; bilious headaches exasperated his
savage mood. Mrs Yule knew from long experience how worse than useless
it was for her to attempt consolation; in silence was her only safety.
Nor did Marian venture to speak directly of what had happened. But
one evening, when she had been engaged in the study and was now saying
'Good-night,' she laid her cheek against her father's, an unwonted
caress which had a strange effect upon him. The expression of sympathy
caused his thoughts to reveal themselves as they never yet had done
before his daughter.

'It might have been very different with me,' he exclaimed abruptly, as
if they had already been conversing on the subject. 'When you think
of my failures--and you must often do so now you are grown up and
understand things--don't forget the obstacles that have been in my way.
I don't like you to look upon your father as a thickhead who couldn't
be expected to succeed. Look at Fadge. He married a woman of good social
position; she brought him friends and influence. But for that he would
never have been editor of The Study, a place for which he wasn't in the
least fit. But he was able to give dinners; he and his wife went into
society; eve