“—Fifteen hundred a year, and you live in precisely the same shoddy surroundings as you did when your manuscripts were responsible for an extra size in waste-paper baskets. I was surprised to hear that you were still in Walpole Street. I supposed that, at any rate, you had taken the whole house.” His eyes raked the little sitting-room from the sham marble mantelpiece to the bamboo cabinet. I surveyed it, too, and suddenly it did seem unnecessarily wretched and depressing. Julian looked at me curiously. “There’s some mystery here,” he said. “Don’t be an ass, Julian,” I replied weakly. “It’s no good denying it,” he retorted; “there’s some mystery. You’re a materialist. You don’t live like this from choice. If you were to follow your own inclinations, you’d do things in the best style you could run to. You’d be in Jermyn Street; you’d have your man, a cottage in Surrey; you’d entertain, go out a good deal. You’d certainly give up these dingy quarters. My friendship for you deplores a mammoth skeleton in your cupboard, James. My study of advertising tells me that this paltry existence of yours does not adequately push your name before the public. You’re losing money, you’re——” “Stop, Julian,” I exclaimed. “_Cherchez_,” he continued, “_cherchez_——” “Stop! Confound you, stop! I tell you——” “Come,” he said laughing. “I mustn’t force your confidence; but I can’t help feeling it’s odd——” “When I came to London,” I said, firmly, “I was most desperately in love. I was to make a fortune, incidentally my name, marry, and live happily ever after. There seemed last year nothing complex about that programme. It seemed almost too simple. I even, like a fool, thought to add an extra touch of piquancy to it by endeavouring to be a Bohemian. I then discovered that what I was attempting was not so simple as I had imagined. To begin with, Bohemians diffuse their brains in every direction except that where bread-and-butter comes from. I found, too, that unless one earns bread-and-butter, one has to sprint very fast to the workhouse door to prevent oneself starving before one gets there; so I dropped Bohemia and I dropped many other pleasant fictions as well. I took to examining pavements, saw how hard they were, had a look at the gutters, and saw how broad they were. I noticed the accumulation of dirt on the house fronts, the actual proportions of industrial buildings. I observed closely the price of food, clothes, and roofs.” “You became a realist.” “Yes; I read a good deal of Gissing about then, and it scared me. I pitied myself. And after that came pity for the girl I loved. I swore that I would never let her come to my side in the ring where the monster Poverty and I were fighting. If you’ve been there you’ve been in hell. And if you come out with your soul alive you can’t tell other people what it felt like. They couldn’t understand.” Julian nodded. “I understand, you know,” he said gravely.