Yes, the Doctor’s friendship was an abiding help to me. And sometimes in my work a single incident would make me feel that for this alone I would willingly have spent all my effort.
As, for instance, when Miss Hobbs appeared one day in the office, her face red from hurrying, her eyes shining with delight.
“I’ve got Polly,” she said. “Shall I take her to her father?”
CHAPTER XXXVIII
The Lad’s book was out. After a season of anxious waiting we knew of its success. The best reviews spoke highly of its creative thought, and praised the mental keenness and the logic of its author.
Rainforth wrote a letter warm with enthusiasm. He pronounced himself and his arguments annihilated, and declared that nothing in his life had given him more pleasure than the process of being ground to powder by his friend.
Last of all came a few lines from a famous English scientist. The Lad read them and flushed hot with delight.
“I declare! This makes me feel like a great man,” he said.
Then he announced that he was going home.
“I haven’t set eyes on my old father for over a year. And nobody in the world will be so pleased as he to know that this thing has gone through successfully.”