the staircase and came back in a
hollow, lonely, sounding murmur from the rooms within. His heart
sank, and a horrible fear of himself got hold of him. He had actually
conquered, and here was the fight to be fought over again with almost
a certainty of defeat at the end of it. Indeed, the defeat in that bare
moment of time had grown so certain, that he was conscious of a distinct
state of disappointment when a sudden footstep within the rooms answered
his noisy summons.

The door opened, and a young man stood before him, peering at him with
half-closed uncertain eyes through the dark. He was a young man of the
fleshly school, something too stout for his years, very pallid, and more
than commonly personable, with a fine broad forehead, fine frank eyes,
and features modelled with an engaging regularity. When he recognised
his visitor his pale and handsome face glittered with a sudden smile
of welcome, teeth and eyes gleaming quite brightly, and the whole face
lighting up in the pleasantest and friendliest fashion conceivable.

This agreeable expression faded into one of almost mechanical dolor, and
the personable young man shook hands with Mr. Bommaney sadly, and sighed
as if he suddenly recalled an idea that sighing was a duty.

'Come in, Mr. Bommaney,' he said. 'Come in, sir. I have sent home all
the clerks, and was just about to lock up for the night. To what do I
owe the pleasure of this visit? Let me light the gas.'

Bommaney, the door being closed behind him, stumbled along the darkened
passage after the more assured and accustomed steps of young Mr. Barter,
and the inner office being gained, and the gas being lighted, allowed
himself to be motioned to a chair. What with having been too much
agitated by the contemplation of his troubles to be able to eat at all
that day, and what with the fight he had had with his temptations, and
the too frequent applications he had made to the brandy, it happened
that for the moment he was by no means certain of his purpose. He sat
for a little while wondering rather hazily what had brought him there.
As often happens with absent-minded people, his hands remembered what
had been required of them before his brain began to act again, and by
and by the fact that he had unbuttoned his overcoat, and had taken a
bundle of papers from his pocket, recalled him to his purpose.

'I wanted,' he said, emerging from his haze, and holding the bundle of
papers nervously in both hands, 'I wa