"Well?"
"Edward left his employment with them nearly a year ago."
"How strange he should have said nothing about it!"
Bateman hesitated, but he had gone so far now that he was obliged to tell the rest. It made him feel dreadfully embarrassed.
"He was fired."
"In heaven's name what for?"
"It appears they warned him once or twice, and at last they told him to get out. They say he was lazy and incompetent."
"Edward?"
They were silent for a while, and then he saw that Isabel was crying. Instinctively he seized her hand.
"Oh, my dear, don't, don't," he said. "I can't bear to see it."