“I can’t go on like this,” groaned Philip. “it’s too degrading.  If I go now I go for good.  Unless you’ll come with me tonight you’ll never see me again.”

“You seem to think that’ll be an awful thing for me.  All I say is, good riddance to bad rubbish.”

“Then good-bye.”

He nodded and limped away slowly, for he hoped with all his heart that she would call him back.  At the next lamp-post he stopped and looked over his shoulder.  He thought she might beckon to him—­he was willing to forget everything, he was ready for any humiliation—­but she had turned away, and apparently had ceased to trouble about him.  He realised that she was glad to be quit of him.

LIX

Philip passed the evening wretchedly.  He had told his landlady that he would not be in, so there was nothing for him to eat, and he had to go to Gatti’s for dinner.  Afterwards he went back to his rooms, but Griffiths on the floor above him was having a party, and the noisy merriment made his own misery more hard to bear.  He went to a music-hall, but it was Saturday night and there was standing-room only:  after half an hour of boredom his legs grew tired and he went home.  He tried to read, but he could not fix his attention; and yet it was necessary that he should work hard.  His examination in biology was in little more than a fortnight, and, though it was easy, he had neglected his lectures of late and was conscious that he knew nothing.  It was only a viva, however, and he felt sure that in a fortnight he could find out enough about the subject to scrape through.  He had confidence in his intelligence.  He threw aside his book and gave himself up to thinking deliberately of the matter which was in his mind all the time.

He reproached himself bitterly for his behaviour that evening.  Why had he given her the alternative that she must dine with him or else never see him again?  Of course she refused.  He should have allowed for her pride.  He had burnt his ships behind him.  It would not be so hard to bear if he thought that she was suffering now, but he knew her too well:  she was perfectly indifferent to him.  If he hadn’t been a fool he would have pretended to believe her story; he ought to have had the strength to conceal his disappointment and the self-control to master his temper.  He could not tell why he loved her.  He had read of the idealisation that takes place in love, but he saw her exactly as she was.  She was not amusing or clever, her mind was common; she had a vulgar shrewdness which revolted him, she had no gentleness nor softness.  As she would have put it herself, she was on the make.  What aroused her admiration was a clever trick played on an unsuspecting person; to `do’ somebody always gave her satisfaction.  Philip laughed savagely as he thought of her gentility and the refinement with which she ate her food; she could not bear a coarse word, so far as her limited vocabulary reached she