ain ordinary courtesy in pressing questions of
that kind after what I have said. I cannot understand you at all. I must
go on now.'

'Why, good God!' exclaimed Stephen passionately, 'you talk as if you
hadn't at all taken her away from anybody who had better claims to her
than you!'

'What do you mean by that?' said Knight, with a puzzled air. 'What have
you heard?'

'Nothing. I too must go on. Good-day.'

'If you will go,' said Knight, reluctantly now, 'you must, I suppose. I
am sure I cannot understand why you behave so.'

'Nor I why you do. I have always been grateful to you, and as far as I
am concerned we need never have become so estranged as we have.'

'And have I ever been anything but well-disposed towards you, Stephen?
Surely you know that I have not! The system of reserve began with you:
you know that.'

'No, no! You altogether mistake our position. You were always from the
first reserved to me, though I was confidential to you. That was, I
suppose, the natural issue of our differing positions in life. And when
I, the pupil, became reserved like you, the master, you did not like it.
However, I was going to ask you to come round and see me.'

'Where are you staying?'

'At the Grosvenor Hotel, Pimlico.'

'So am I.'

'That's convenient, not to say odd. Well, I am detained in London for a
day or two; then I am going down to see my father and mother, who live
at St. Launce's now. Will you see me this evening?'

'I may; but I will not promise. I was wishing to be alone for an hour or
two; but I shall know where to find you, at any rate. Good-bye.'

Chapter XXXVIII

'Jealousy is cruel as the grave.'

Stephen pondered not a little on this meeting with his old friend and
once-beloved exemplar. He was grieved, for amid all the distractions of
his latter years a still small voice of fidelity to Knight had lingered
on in him. Perhaps this staunchness was because Knight ever treated him
as a mere disciple--even to snubbing him sometimes; and had at last,
though unwittingly, inflicted upon him the greatest snub of all, that of
taking away his sweetheart. The emotional side of his constitution was
built rather after a feminine than a male model; and that tremendous
wound from Knight's hand may have tended to keep alive a warmth which
solicitousness would have extinguished altogether.

Knight, on his part, was vexed, after they had parted, that he had not
taken Stephen in hand a little after