‘Yes, that can scarcely fail of results.’

‘I think most of Mr. Grail,’ put in Annabel.

‘A true woman,’ said Mrs. Ormonde, with a smile.  ’Certainly, let the individual come before the crowd.’

And all agreed that in Gilbert Grail was the best result hitherto of
Egremont’s work.

CHAPTER XV

A SECOND VISIT TO WALNUT TREE WALK

The man of reserve betrays happiness by disposition for companionship.  Surprised that the world all at once looks so bright to his own eyes, he desires to learn how others view it.  The unhappy man is intensely subjective; his own impressions are so inburnt that those of others seem to him unimportant—­nay, impertinent.  And what is so bitter as the spectacle of alien joy when one’s own heart is waste!

Gilbert Grail was no longer the silent and lonely man that he had been.  The one with whom he had formed something like a friendship had gone apart; in the nature of things Ackroyd and he could never again associate as formerly, though when need was they spoke without show of estrangement; but others whom he had been wont to hold at a distance by his irresponsiveness were now of interest to him, and, after the first surprise at the change in him, they met his quiet advances in a friendly way.  Among his acquaintances there were, of course, few fitted to be in any sense his associates.  Two, however, he induced to attend Egremont’s lectures, thus raising the number of the audience to eight.  These recruits were not enthusiastic over ‘Thoughts for the Present;’ one of them persevered to the end of the course, the other made an excuse for absenting himself after two evenings.

Gilbert held seriously in mind the pledge he had given to Egremont to work for the spread of humane principles.  One of those with whom he often spoke of these matters was Bunce—­himself a man made hard to approach by rude experiences.  Bunce was a locksmith; some twelve years ago he had had a little workshop of his own, but a disastrous marriage brought him back to the position of a journeyman, and at present he was as often out of work as not.  Happily his wife was dead; he found it a hard task to keep his three children.  The truth was that his domestic miseries had, when at their height, driven him to the public-house, and only by dint of struggles which no soul save his own was aware of was he gradually recovering self-confidence and the trust of employers.  His attendance at Egremont’s lectures was part of the cure.  Though it was often hard to go out at night and leave his little ones, he did so that his resolve might not suffer.  He and they lived in one room, in the same house which sheltered Miss Totty Nancarrow.

On the evening which Egremont spent at Eastbourne, Grail came across Bunce on the way home from the factory.  They resumed a discussion interrupted a day or two before, and, as they passed the end of Newport Street, Bunce asked his companion to enter for the purpose of looking at a certain paper in which he had found what seemed to him cogent arguments.  They went up the dark musty staircase, and entered the room opposite to Totty’s.