wing how unpardonable it would be to neglect the people concerned.
Then they parted, Jasper going off at a smart pace homewards.

Marian turned down Park Street, and proceeded for some distance along
Camden Road. The house in which she and her parents now lived was not
quite so far away as St Paul's Crescent; they rented four rooms, one
of which had to serve both as Alfred Yule's sitting-room and for
the gatherings of the family at meals. Mrs Yule generally sat in
the kitchen, and Marian used her bedroom as a study. About half the
collection of books had been sold; those that remained were still a
respectable library, almost covering the walls of the room where their
disconsolate possessor passed his mournful days.

He could read for a few hours a day, but only large type, and fear of
consequences kept him well within the limit of such indulgence laid down
by his advisers. Though he inwardly spoke as if his case were hopeless,
Yule was very far from having resigned himself to this conviction;
indeed, the prospect of spending his latter years in darkness and
idleness was too dreadful to him to be accepted so long as a glimmer of
hope remained. He saw no reason why the customary operation should not
restore him to his old pursuits, and he would have borne it ill if his
wife or daughter had ever ceased to oppose the despair which it pleased
him to affect.

On the whole, he was noticeably patient. At the time of their removal to
these lodgings, seeing that Marian prepared herself to share the change
as a matter of course, he let her do as she would without comment; nor
had he since spoken to her on the subject which had proved so dangerous.
Confidence between them there was none; Yule addressed his daughter in
a grave, cold, civil tone, and Marian replied gently, but without
tenderness. For Mrs Yule the disaster to the family was distinctly a
gain; she could not but mourn her husband's affliction, yet he no longer
visited her with the fury or contemptuous impatience of former days.
Doubtless the fact of needing so much tendance had its softening
influence on the man; he could not turn brutally upon his wife when
every hour of the day afforded him some proof of her absolute devotion.
Of course his open-air exercise was still unhindered, and in this season
of the returning sun he walked a great deal, decidedly to the advantage
of his general health--which again must have been a source of benefit
to his temper. Of evenings,