o suffer
curious interruptions, during which he seemed to be musing on something
Reardon had said, or on some point of his behaviour. The explanation of
this was that Carter had begun to think there might be a foundation for
Mrs Yule's hypothesis--that the novelist was not altogether in his sound
senses. At first he scouted the idea, but as time went on it seemed
to him that Reardon's countenance certainly had a gaunt wildness which
suggested disagreeable things. Especially did he remark this after his
return from an August holiday in Norway. On coming for the first time
to the City Road branch he sat down and began to favour Reardon with
a lively description of how he had enjoyed himself abroad; it never
occurred to him that such talk was not likely to inspirit the man
who had passed his August between the garret and the hospital, but he
observed before long that his listener was glancing hither and thither
in rather a strange way.

'You haven't been ill since I saw you?' he inquired.

'Oh no!'

'But you look as if you might have been. I say, we must manage for you
to have a fortnight off, you know, this month.'

'I have no wish for it,' said Reardon. 'I'll imagine I have been to
Norway. It has done me good to hear of your holiday.'

'I'm glad of that; but it isn't quite the same thing, you know, as
having a run somewhere yourself.'

'Oh, much better! To enjoy myself may be mere selfishness, but to enjoy
another's enjoyment is the purest satisfaction, good for body and soul.
I am cultivating altruism.'

'What's that?'

'A highly rarefied form of happiness. The curious thing about it is
that it won't grow unless you have just twice as much faith in it as is
required for assent to the Athanasian Creed.'

'Oh!'

Carter went away more than puzzled. He told his wife that evening that
Reardon had been talking to him in the most extraordinary fashion--no
understanding a word he said.

All this time he was on the look-out for employment that would be more
suitable to his unfortunate clerk. Whether slightly demented or not,
Reardon gave no sign of inability to discharge his duties; he was
conscientious as ever, and might, unless he changed greatly, be relied
upon in positions of more responsibility than his present one. And at
length, early in October, there came to the secretary's knowledge an
opportunity with which he lost no time in acquainting Reardon. The
latter repaired that evening to Clipstone Street, and