"I don't unsay it," he said, "I don't unsay one single word of it. In proportion as both of them were dear to me, so is that which has happened detestable to me. I don't want to talk about it--there is no use in that. I have got to begin my life again; that is what it comes to, and I have to begin it on a basis of hate and utter distrust. Two people who were the friends of my heart, people whom I could have trusted, so I should have thought, to the uttermost verge of eternity, have done this." Then all his bitterness, and there was much of that, all his resentment and anger, all his love gone sour, rose in his throat. "For what guarantee have I now," he cried, "that everyone else whom I trusted will not behave to me like that? You, mother, you, what plans and plots may you not have got against me? It is all very well to say that you cannot, that you are my friend. But what is my experience of friends? They are those who know one best, and can thus stab most deeply. God defend me from my friends--I would sooner shake hands with my enemies. Ah! I forgive them, for I might know that they were enemies; but, fool that I was, I never guessed that my friends were but enemies who sat at my table. They ate my food--I wish it had choked them; they drank my wine again and again--I wish I had poisoned it. For they have poisoned me, they have made my life impossible. Ah, don't say I shall get over it! That is silly. How can I get over it? For if I could, I should not say these things to you. I should be silent, I hope, and trust to what is called the healing hand of Time. But there are certain things Time never heals. One of them is the infidelity of those whom one thought were friends." He was speaking quickly now, the bile of bitterness overflowed. "Friends!" he said. "Madge and Evelyn and I were friends. But they two have done this accursed thing. And if I have another friend in this world, I shall now expect him to believe the chance word of any lying tongue. Apart from you, I have one friend left, and if Tom Merivale told me to-morrow that I had cheated at cards, and that in consequence he declined the pleasure of my further acquaintance, I should not be surprised. I believe nothing good of my friends, and I believe less harm of my enemies! They, anyhow, can hurt me less. I have had but four friends in my life, and yet even with four, fool that I was, I counted myself rich in them. Two have gone, and there are just two people in this world whom I hate. Till yesterday there were none." Mrs. Home laid her hand timidly on his arm. "Philip, dear Philip," she said, "is there any good in saying these things? Does it help in any way what has happened, or does it help you?"