it. I don't like it a bit. I've only just left him. Here, in London. A
couple of hours ago. I oughtn't to have left him. The chap's not fit to
be left. But I had to. He cleared me off. I had to go. He wasn't in a
state to be argued with. I was frightened of irritating him. To tell you
the truth, I'm frightened now about him. Dead frightened.

"Look here, it's in two parts, this sudden development. Two parts as I
saw it. Begins all right and then works up. Two parts--morning and
afternoon yesterday and a bit to-day. And of all extraordinary places to
happen at--Brighton.

"Yes, Brighton. I was down there for a Saturday to Monday with my
Missus. This absolutely topping weather, you know. We were coming back
Monday evening. Yesterday. Very well. Monday morning we were sunning on
the pier, she and I. I was reading the paper, she was watching the
people and making remarks about them. If Paradise is doing in the next
world what you best liked doing in this, my wife will ask Peter if she
can sit at the gate and watch the demobilised souls arriving and pass
remarks about them. She certainly will.

"Well, all of a sudden she began, 'Oh, what a frightfully _in_teresting
face that man's got!' That's the way she talks. 'What a most
_in_teresting face. Do look, Percy.'

"I said, 'Well, so have I got an interesting face. Look at mine.'

"'Oh, but _do_, Percy. You _must_. On that seat by himself just
opposite. He's just staring at nothing and thinking and thinking. And
his face looks so worn and tired and yet so _very_ kind and such a
_wist_ful look as though he was thinking of--'

"I growled, still reading: 'He's probably thinking what he's going to
have for lunch. Oh, dash it, do stop jogging me. Where is he?'

"And then I looked across. Old Sabre! By Jove, you might have pushed me
over with one finger. Old Sabre in a tweed suit and a soft hat, and his
game leg stuck out straight, and his old stick, and his hands about a
thousand miles deep in his pockets, and looking--yes, my wife said the
true thing when she said how he was looking. Any one would have taken a
second squint at old Sabre's face as I saw it then--taken a second
squint and wondered what he'd been through and what on earth his mind
could be on now. They certainly would.

"I knew. I knew; but I tell you this, I could see he'd been through a
tough lot more, and thought a considerable number of fathoms deeper, in
the month since I'd seen him last. Yes, by Jove, I