'Do you remember the birds and fishes?'
'Do I not? It was the birds and fishes who introduced you to me.'
'I think this was what Charles meant by them—escape, irrelevance, holiday.'
'That's quite true. Nothing ought to be as serious as it is, for nothing is so serious as it looks when you really come to grips with it. Life always looks like a blank wall until you come up to it and then there is a little door which was invisible at a distance.... I found that out when I met you.'
'And did you go through it?'
'Straight through and out to the other side.'
Clara took his hand affectionately, and their eyes met in a happy smile. They were friends for ever, the relationship most perfectly suited to his temperament, most needed by hers.
From that she passed on to a frank discussion of her own situation with regard to Charles, and the hole he was in through the absconding Mr Clott.
'I knew that fellow was a scoundrel,' said Verschoyle. 'He tried to borrow money from me, and to pump me about the form of my horses. How on earth did he ever become secretary to a committee for the furtherance of dramatic art?'
'He turned up. Everything in Charles's life turns up. I turned up.'