“Perhaps I understood... Eric, if you want to go away again, I shan’t stop you.”
“No, I’m going back to the old life. I must start work again... and try to feel it’s worth doing. I meant to funk it all, but now I’m determined to win... We won’t talk about this again, mother. I don’t want you to think hardly of her, and you must never let any one attack her... A new life from to-day,” he ended jerkily. “Dawn....”
CHAPTER THREE
THE WILDERNESS OF THIS WORLD
“Eastward was the wise man’s course.... Mr. Polly saw himself going along it with all the self-applause a wise man feels. But somehow it wouldn’t come like that... the figure went slinking... and would not go otherwise than slinking. He turned his eyes westward as if for an explanation, and if the figure was no longer ignoble, the prospect was appalling.
“‘One kick in the stummick would settle a chap like me,’ said Mr. Polly.
“‘Oh, God!’ cried Mr. Polly, and lifted his eyes to heaven, and said for the last time in that struggle, ‘It isn’t my affair!’
“And so saying, he turned his face towards the Potwell Inn.
“He went back, neither halting nor hastening in his pace after this last decision, but with a mind feverishly busy.