e was a set of
Indian clubs he had been going to harden his muscles with every
morning, and had used for a week; together with an india-rubber
gymnastic apparatus bought for the same purpose. Here stood a patent
shower-bath, that was to have dashed energy over him after a bad night,
and had only succeeded in giving him acute neuralgia; a standing-desk
he had broken his back at for a couple of days; a homoeopathic
medicine-chest and a phrenological head--both subjects he had meant to
satisfy his curiosity by looking into, had time not failed him. Mary
sighed, when she thought of the waste of good money these and similar
articles stood for. (Some day he would just have them privately carted
away to auction!) But if Richard set his heart on a thing he wanted it
so badly, so much more than other people did, that he knew no peace
till he had it.

Mahony read in his wife's eyes the disapproval she was too wise to
utter. At any other time her silent criticism would have galled him; in
this case, he took shelter behind it. Let her only go on setting him
down for lax and spendthrift, incapable of knowing his own mind. He
would be sorry, indeed, for her to guess how matters really stood with
him. The truth was, he had fallen a prey to utter despondency, was
become so spiritless that it puzzled even himself. He thought he could
trace some of the mischief back to the professional knocks and jars
Ocock's action had brought down on him: to hear one's opinion doubted,
one's skill questioned, was the tyro's portion; he was too old to treat
such insolence with the scorn it deserved. Of course he had lived the
affair down; but the result of it would seem to be a bottomless ENNUI,
a TEDIUM VITAE that had something pathological about it. Under its
influence the homeliest trifles swelled to feats beyond his strength.
There was, for instance, the putting on and off one's clothing: this
infinite boredom of straps and buttons--and all for what? For a day
that would be an exact copy of the one that had gone before, a night as
unrefreshing as the last. Did any one suspect that there were moments
when he quailed before this job, suspect that more than once he had
even reckoned the number of times he would be called on to perform it,
day in, day out, till that garment was put on him that came off no
more; or that he could understand and feel sympathy with those faint
souls--and there were such--who laid hands on themselves rather than go
on doing