"Alecto? Miss Marvell?"
"Naturally."
"These meetings must be pretty boring."
"Especially because I can't keep my temper. I lose it in the vulgarest way—and say the most idiotic things."
There was a pause of silence. The eyes of the journalist wandered round the room, coming back to Lathrop at last with renewed curiosity.
"How are your affairs, Paul?"
"Couldn't be worse. Everything here would have been seized long ago, if there had been anything to seize. But you can't distrain on trout—dear slithery things. And as the ponds afford my only means of sustenance, and do occasionally bring in something, my creditors have to leave me the house and a few beds and chairs so that I may look after them."
"Why don't you write another book?"
"Because at present I have nothing to say. And on that point I happen to have a conscience—some rays of probity, left."
He got up as he spoke, and went across the room, to a covered basket beside the fire.