'Yes, they met in the inmost heart of things, without battling on the outworks. When I look back at that boy's life, I do not feel as if I deserved him; I ought not to have let him sacrifice himself to that life at Bexley.'
'It was his own doing, poor fellow! and he sees his mistake.'
'None of us could realize at the time the force of contrast,' said Felix; 'indeed, I should have thought him the last person to have been affected by it.'
'I did not mean that only. I meant the higher service,' said Clement, making Felix suspect that his consolations had been so applied as to deepen the depression, and resolve the more to write to Dr. May.
So two days later, with a certain passiveness, as though the physician's visits were a matter of course, Lance, who had just finished his tardy toilette, obeyed the summons into the library, and submitted to the examination, which ended in an assurance that there was no tendency to pulmonary disease, and that care and patience would soon subdue the remains of his illness.
'Thank you, Sir,' in a perplexed half-incredulous tone, as he leant back, not troubling himself to ask a question as to the treatment.
Dr. May waited a little, then looked steadily into his face. 'Now, Lance, we doctors ask startling questions. You've not fallen in love?'
'Not particularly,' said Lance, without a particle of blush, even if he had had cheeks to blush with.
'What does that mean? Generally?'
'I never let myself go in for it. It was of no use.'