“Surely,” he protested, with a quiet smile, “your cousins are more ambitious than that.  I am sure Selina would never wear a cooking-apron, unless it had ribbon and frilly things all over it.”

She laughed.

“After all, they have been kind to me,” she said.  “My mother was the black sheep of the family, and when she died Mr. Bullsom paid my passage home, and insisted upon my coming to live here as one of the family.  I should hate them to think that I am discontented, only the things which satisfy them do not satisfy me, so life sometimes becomes a little difficult.”

“Have you friends in London?” he asked.

“None!  I tried living there when I first came back for a few weeks, but it was impossible.”

“You will be very lonely, surely.  London is the loneliest of all great cities.”

“Why should I not make friends?”

“That is what I too asked myself years ago when I was articled there,” he answered.  “Yet it is not so easy as it sounds.  Every one seems to have their own little circle, and a solitary person remains so often just outside.  Yet if you have friends—­and tastes—­London is a paradise.  Oh, how fascinating I used to find it just at first—­before the chill came.  You, too, will feel that.  You will be content at first to watch, to listen, to wonder!  Every type of humanity passes before you like the jumbled-up figures of a kaleidoscope.  You are content even to sit before a window in a back street—­and listen.  What a sound that is—­the roar of London, the voices of the street, the ceaseless hum, the creaking of the great wheel of humanity as it goes round and round.  And then, perhaps, in a certain mood the undernote falls upon your ear, the bitter, long-drawn-out cry of the hopeless and helpless.  When you have once heard it, life is never the same again.  Then, if you do not find friends, you will know what misery is.”

They were both silent for a few minutes.  A car passed them unnoticed.  Then she looked at him curiously.

“For a lawyer,” she remarked, “you are a very imaginative person.”

He laughed.

“Ah, well, I was talking just then of how I felt in those days.  I was a boy then, you know.  I dare say I could go back now to my old rooms and live there without a thrill.”

She shook her head.

“What one has once felt,” she murmured, “comes back always.”

“Sometimes only the echo,” he answered, “and that is weariness.”

They walked for a little way in silence.  Then she spoke to him in an altered tone.

“I have heard a good deal about you during the last few weeks,” she said.  “You are very much to be congratulated, they tell me.  I am sure I am very glad that you have been so fortunate.”

“Thank you,” he answered.  “To tell you the truth, it all seems very marvellous to me.  Only a few months ago your uncle was almost my only client of importance.”