"
"Do you find him at all remarkable otherwise? What dismayed me more
than his poetry even was that when he gave that up he seemed to have
no particular direction."
"Oh, he reads a good deal, and pretty serious books; and he goes to
hear all the sermons and lectures in town."
"I thought he came to mine only," sighed the minister, with, a
retrospective suffering. "Well, what can be done for him now? I feel
my complicity with Barker as poignantly as you could wish."
"Ah, you see how the principle applies everywhere!" cried the editor
joyously. He added: "But I really think that for the present you
can't do better than let Barker alone. He's getting on very well at
Mrs. Harmon's, and although the conditions at the St. Albans are
more transitory than most sublunary things, Barker appears to be a
fixture. Our little system has begun to revolve round him
unconsciously; he keeps us going."
"Well," said Sewell, consenting to be a little comforted. He was
about to go more particularly into the facts; but Mrs. Sewell came
in just then, and he obviously left the subject.
Evans did not sit down again after rising to greet her; and
presently he said good night.
She turned to her husband: "What were you talking about when I came
in?"
"When you came in?"
"Yes. You both had that look--I can always tell it--of having
suddenly stopped.
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