er have thought, though, that the queer little
chemist had so much in him? A failure? ... yes, he was right there; and
as unlovely as failures always are--at close quarters." But as he laid
his hands on the gate, he jerked up his head and exclaimed half aloud:
"God bless my soul! What he wanted was not argument or reason but a
little human sympathy." As usual, however, the flash of intuition came
too late. "For such a touchy nature I'm certainly extraordinarily
obtuse where the feelings of others are concerned," he told himself as
he hooked in the latch.

"Why, Richard, where HAVE you been?" came Mary's clear voice--muted so
as not to disturb John and Jinny, who had retired to rest. Purdy and
she sat waiting on the verandah. "Were you called out? We've had time
to clear everything away. Here, dear, I saved you some sandwiches and a
glass of claret. I'm sure you didn't get any supper yourself, with
looking after other people."

Long after Mary had fallen asleep he lay wakeful. His foolish blunder
in response to Tangye's appeal rankled in his mind. He could not get
over his insensitiveness. How he had boasted of his prosperity, his
moral nicety, his saving pursuits--he to boast!--when all that was
asked of him was a kindly: "My poor fellow soul, you have indeed fought
a hard fight; but there IS a God above us who will recompense you at
His own time, take the word for it of one who has also been through the
Slough of Despond." And then just these ... these hobbies of his, of
which he had made so much. Now that he was alone with himself he saw
them in a very different light. Lepidoptera collected years since were
still unregistered, plants and stones unclassified; his poor efforts at
elucidating the Bible waited to be brought into line with the Higher
Criticism; Home's levitations and fire-tests called for investigation;
while the leaves of some of the books he had cited had never even been
cut. The mere thought of these things was provocative, rest-destroying.
To induce drowsiness he went methodically through the list of his
acquaintances, and sought to range them under one or other of Tangye's
headings. And over this there came moments when he lapsed into depths
... fetched himself up again--but with an effort ... only to fall
back....

But he seemed barely to have closed his eyes when the night-bell rang.
In an instant he was on his feet in the middle of the room, applying
force to his sleep-cogged wits.

He threw o