The road they had to go was full of people, kept off in some measure by the guard of soldiers.  All sorts of kindly speeches, and many a curious question, were addressed to the poor invalids as they walked along.  Philip’s jaw, and the lower part of his face, were bandaged up; his cap was slouched down; he held his cloak about him, and shivered within its folds.

They came to a standstill from some slight obstacle at the corner of a street.  Down the causeway of this street a naval officer with a lady on his arm was walking briskly, with a step that told of health and a light heart.  He stayed his progress though, when he saw the convoy of maimed and wounded men; he said something, of which Philip only caught the words, ‘same uniform,’ ‘for his sake,’ to the young lady, whose cheek blanched a little, but whose eyes kindled.  Then leaving her for an instant, he pressed forward; he was close to Philip,—­poor sad Philip absorbed in his own thoughts,—­so absorbed that he noticed nothing till he heard a voice at his ear, having the Northumbrian burr, the Newcastle inflections which he knew of old, and that were to him like the sick memory of a deadly illness; and then he turned his muffled face to the speaker, though he knew well enough who it was, and averted his eyes after one sight of the handsome, happy man,—­the man whose life he had saved once, and would save again, at the risk of his own, but whom, for all that, he prayed that he might never meet more on earth.

‘Here, my fine fellow, take this,’ forcing a crown piece into Philip’s hand.  ’I wish it were more; I’d give you a pound if I had it with me.’

Philip muttered something, and held out the coin to Captain Kinraid, of course in vain; nor was there time to urge it back upon the giver, for the obstacle to their progress was suddenly removed, the crowd pressed upon the captain and his wife, the procession moved on, and Philip along with it, holding the piece in his hand, and longing to throw it far away.  Indeed he was on the point of dropping it, hoping to do so unperceived, when he bethought him of giving it to Jem’s wife, the footsore woman, limping happily along by her husband’s side.  They thanked him, and spoke in his praise more than he could well bear.  It was no credit to him to give that away which burned his fingers as long as he kept it.

Philip knew that the injuries he had received in the explosion on board the Theseus would oblige him to leave the service.  He also believed that they would entitle him to a pension.  But he had little interest in his future life; he was without hope, and in a depressed state of health.  He remained for some little time stationary, and then went through all the forms of dismissal on account of wounds received in service, and was turned out loose upon the world, uncertain where to go, indifferent as to what became of him.

It was fine, warm October weather as he turned his back upon the coast, and set off on his walk northwards.  Green leaves were yet upon the trees; the hedges were one flush of foliage and the wild rough-flavoured fruits of different kinds; the fields were tawny with the uncleared-off stubble, or emerald green with the growth of the aftermath.  The roadside cottage gardens were gay with hollyhocks and Michaelmas daisies and marigolds, and the bright panes of the windows glittered through a veil of China roses.