Toftrees was outside the fierce burning of flames beyond his comprehension.
He was a cog-wheel in the machinery of this so swiftly-weaving loom.
But he also paid himself both ways—as he felt instinctively.
He and his wife owed this upstart and privately disreputable poet a rap upon the knuckles. He would administer it to-night.
And it was a duty, no less than a fortunate opportunity, to save a good and charming girl from a scamp.
When Toftrees told his wife all about it at lunch that morning she quite agreed, and, moreover, gave him valuable feminine advice as to the conduct of the private conversation with Podley.
CHAPTER VIII
THE AMNESIC DREAM-PHASE
"In the drunkenness of the chronic alcoholic the higher brain centres are affected more readily and more profoundly than the rest of the nervous system, with the result that the drinker, despite the derangement of his consciousness, is capable of apparently deliberate and purposeful acts. It is in this dream-state, which may last a considerable time, that the morbid impulses of the alcoholic are most often carried into effect."