He was ill, and in a very dismal condition altogether, abandoned by the rest of his cronies, and a close prisoner in the house which has so many painful associations for him.

It was a work of charity to bear him company." "Did you see Captain Sedgewick, or Marian, while you were down there ?" "No.

I should have liked to have called upon the kind old Captain; but Forster was unconscionably exacting,--there was no getting away from him." Gilbert stepped with his friend until late that night, smoking and drinking a mild mixture of brandy and soda-water, and talking of the things that had been doing on this side of the globe while he had been on the other.

No more was said about Marian, or Gilbert's plans for the future.

In his own mind that one subject reigned supreme, shutting out every other thought; but h did not want to make himself a nuisance to John Saltram, and he knew that there are bounds to the endurance of which friendship is capable.
The two friends seemed cheerful enough as they smoked their cigars in the summer dusk, the quiet of the flagged court below rarely broken by a passing footfall.