hose excellent reasons that he had himself given a little while
back. Some people might have said they were rather diverse and not all
mutually inclusive, but no such idea troubled him; he was sure all
could easily have been done if the daffodil were sold. He felt that he
could have done it all quite well, he did not stop to think how--if he
had had the handling of the money he could have been a benefactor to
his whole family, especially Julia. It was hard that he should be
prevented, bitterly hard; it had so often happened in his life that he
had been prevented from doing what was good and useful by want of
means and opportunity or the stupid obstinacy of other people. He grew
more and more depressed as he sat on the wall thinking of these things
and wondering if there were many men so useless, so unfortunate and
misunderstood as he.

This depression lasted all that day and on into the next; indeed, for
some time longer. It lifted a little once in the course of a week, but
not much, and soon settled down again, making the Captain very
miserable, disinclined for work, and decidedly bad company. Johnny
thought he was not well, but Julia fancied his trouble had something
to do with annoyance and the daffodil. He did not confide in either of
them, maintaining a proud and gloomy silence and nursing his grievance
so that it grew. For days he cherished his sense of injury and wrong,
until it became large and took a good hold upon him. Then, all at
once, for no reason that one can give, a change came, and his mind, as
if smitten by a gust of wind, began to veer about, to stir and
lighten. Why, he suddenly asked himself, was it that Julia would not
sell the bulb? Because--the answer was so absurdly simple he wondered
it had not occurred to him before--because it was the Van Heigens'
present, and one cannot sell presents. He perfectly understood the
scruple, honoured it even; but he also saw quite plainly that, though
it prevented her from selling the daffodil, it did not stand in the
way of its being sold. She could not, of course, authorise the sale,
any more than she could conduct it; but that was no reason why she
should not be very pleased to have it sold. Indeed, not only was this
a probability, practically a certainty, but more than likely she had
had some such idea in her mind when she spoke of the matter to her
father--in all likelihood she was wondering now why he had not taken
the hint.

Thus Captain Polkington reas