It was Lewis himself who recalled him to the business.
"I thought of coming down to town," he said. "I have been getting out
of spirits up here, and I wanted to be near you."
"Then it was an excellent chance which brought me up to-night. But why
are you dull? I thought you were the sort of man who is sufficient unto
himself, you know."
"I am not," he said sharply. "I never realized my gross insufficiency
so bitterly."
"Ah!" said Wratislaw, sitting up, "love?
"Did you happen to see Miss Wishart's engagement in the papers?"
"I never read the papers. But I have heard about this: in fact, I
believe I have congratulated Stocks."
"Do you know that she ought to have married me?" Lewis cried almost
shrilly. "I swear she loved me. It was only my hideous folly that
drove her from me."
"Folly?" said Wratislaw, smiling. "Folly? Well you might call it
that. I have come up 'ane's errand,' as your people hereabouts say, to
talk to you like a schoolmaster, Lewie. Do you mind a good talking-to?"
"I need it," he said. "Only it won't do any good, because I have been
talking to myself for a month without effect. Do you know what I am,
Tommy?"
"I am prepared to hear," said the other.
"A coward! It sounds nice, doesn't it? I am a shirker, a man who would
be drummed out of any regiment."
"Rot!" said Wratislaw. "In that sort of thing you have the courage of
your kind.
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