Philosophy!  Philosophy was absurdly unpractical.  Philosophy could not cope with real situations.  Where had he sinned?  Nowhere.  He had taken Dr. Veiga’s advice and given up trying to fit his environment to himself instead of vice versa.  He had let things rip and shown no egotistic concern in the business of others.  But was he any better off in his secret soul?  Not a whit.  He ought to have been happy; he was miserable.  On every hand the horizon was dark, and the glitter of seventeen thousand pounds per annum did not lighten it by the illuminative power of a single candle....  But his feverish hand gratefully remembered Mimi’s kiss.

VI

Nevertheless, as the day waxed and began to wane, it was obvious even to Mr. Prohack that the domestic climate grew sunnier and more bracing.  A weight seemed to have been lifted from the hearts of all Mr. Prohack’s entourage.  The theft of the twenty thousand pound necklace was a grave event, but it could not impair the beauty of the great fact that the church-clock had ceased to strike, and that therefore the master would be able to sleep.  The shadow of a menacing calamity had passed, and everybody’s spirits, except Mr. Prohack’s, reacted to the news; Machin, restored to duty, was gaiety itself; but Mr. Prohack, unresponsive, kept on absurdly questioning his soul and the universe:  “What am I getting out of life?  Can it be true that I am incapable of arranging my existence in such a manner that the worm shall not feed so gluttonously on my damask cheek?”

Eve’s attitude to him altered.  In view of the persistent silence of the clock she had to admit to herself that her husband was still a long way off insanity, and she was ashamed of her suspicion and did all that she could to make compensation to him, while imitating his discreet example and not referring even distantly to the clock.  When she mentioned the necklace, suggesting a direct appeal to Scotland Yard, and he discountenanced the scheme, she at once in the most charming way accepted his verdict and praised his superior wisdom.  When he placed before her the invitation from Mr. Softly Bishop, she beautifully offered to disentangle him from it if he should so desire.  When she told him that she had been asked to preside over the Social Amenities Committee of the League of all the Arts, and he advised her not to bind herself by taking any official position, and especially one which would force her into contact with a pack of self-seeking snobbish women, she beamed acquiescence and heartily concurred with him about the pack of women.  In fact the afternoon became one of those afternoons on which every caprice was permitted to Mr. Prohack and he could do no wrong.  But the worm still fed on his cheek.

Before tea he enjoyed a sleep, without having to time his repose so as to avoid being wakened by the clock.  And then tea for one was served with full pomp in his study.  This meant either that his tireless women were out, or that Eve had judged it prudent to indulge him in a solitary tea; and, after the hurried thick-cupped teas at the Treasury, he certainly did not dislike a leisurely tea replete with every luxury proper to the repast.  He ate, drank, and read odd things in odd corners of The Times, and at last he smoked.