United States or Poland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
'Biffen passed you in Tottenham Court Road, he added. 'I didn't see him. 'No; he said you didn't. 'Perhaps, said Amy, 'it was just when I was speaking to Mr Milvain. 'You met Milvain? 'Yes. 'Why didn't you tell me? 'I'm sure I don't know. I can't mention every trifle that happens. 'No, of course not.
Before leaving the office, Reardon wrote a few lines to Biffen, whom he had visited on the Monday. 'Come and see me if you can. I am down with a bad cold, and have to keep in for the rest of the week. All the same, I feel far more cheerful. Bring a new chapter of your exhilarating romance.
Biffen himself was not communicative on the subject, a fact which led a third party to put forward the awful theory that he was a professional association player and feared to mention his crime in a school which worshipped Rugby. 'Why, Mr Thomson, he said, as Jim came up, 'I thought you was running. Whoa! The last remark was addressed to a bored-looking horse attached to the mowing-machine.
'No need to go away, replied Biffen, coming forward to shake hands. 'Take a book for a few minutes. Mr Baker won't mind. It was a very small room, with a ceiling so low that the tall lodger could only just stand upright with safety; perhaps three inches intervened between his head and the plaster, which was cracked, grimy, cobwebby.
Both were invalids, for Biffen had of course caught a cold from his exposure in shirt-sleeves on the roof, and he was suffering from the shock to his nerves; but the thought that his novel was safe in the hands of publishers gave him energy to resist these influences. The absence of the pipe, for neither had any palate for tobacco at present, was the only external peculiarity of this meeting.
Her resolve to behave composedly gave way as soon as Harold's broken voice had replied. Hysterical sobbing made further speech from her impossible, and Biffen, after holding her hand reverently for a moment, left her alone.
But he could not pen a letter of retractation, and there remained with him a new cause of exasperated wretchedness. Excepting the people with whom he came in contact at the hospital, he had no society but that of Biffen. The realist visited him once a week, and this friendship grew closer than it had been in the time of Reardon's prosperity.
On opening he saw not only Amy and the servant, the latter holding Willie in her arms, but with them Jasper Milvain. 'I have been at Mrs Yule's, Jasper explained as he came in. 'Have you anyone here? 'Biffen. 'Ah, then we'll discuss realism. 'That's over for the evening. Greek metres also. 'Thank Heaven!
He went to Dora's room, and told her of the event, but without mentioning the letter which had brought it under his notice. 'I suppose there was no alternative between that and starvation. I scarcely thought of Biffen as likely to kill himself. If Reardon had done it, I shouldn't have felt the least surprise.
He was making his way to the place where the ground-man was usually to be found, with a view to obtaining the keys, when he noticed that the door was already open, and on going thither he came upon Biffen, the ground-man, in earnest conversation with a stranger. 'Morning, sir, said the ground-man. He was on speaking terms with most of the masters and all the boys.
Word Of The Day