a sudden
alarm.

'Cost you too much? I don't understand you.'

They had turned into a broader thoroughfare, which, however, was little
frequented at this hour. Reardon, his hands thrust into the pockets of
a shabby overcoat and his head bent forward, went on at a slow pace,
observant of nothing. For a moment or two he delayed reply, then said in
an unsteady voice:

'Your way of talking has always been to glorify success, to insist upon
it as the one end a man ought to keep in view. If you had talked so to
me alone, it wouldn't have mattered. But there was generally someone
else present. Your words had their effect; I can see that now. It's very
much owing to you that I am deserted, now that there's no hope of my
ever succeeding.'

Jasper's first impulse was to meet this accusation with indignant
denial, but a sense of compassion prevailed. It was so painful to see
the defeated man wandering at night near the house where his wife
and child were comfortably sheltered; and the tone in which he spoke
revealed such profound misery.

'That's a most astonishing thing to say,' Jasper replied. 'Of course I
know nothing of what has passed between you and your wife, but I feel
certain that I have no more to do with what has happened than any other
of your acquaintances.'

'You may feel as certain as you will, but your words and your example
have influenced my wife against me. You didn't intend that; I don't
suppose it for a moment. It's my misfortune, that's all.'

'That I intended nothing of the kind, you need hardly say, I should
think. But you are deceiving yourself in the strangest way. I'm afraid
to speak plainly; I'm afraid of offending you. But can you recall
something that I said about the time of your marriage? You didn't like
it then, and certainly it won't be pleasant to you to remember it now.
If you mean that your wife has grown unkind to you because you are
unfortunate, there's no need to examine into other people's influence
for an explanation of that.'

Reardon turned his face towards the speaker.

'Then you have always regarded my wife as a woman likely to fail me in
time of need?'

'I don't care to answer a question put in that way. If we are no longer
to talk with the old friendliness, it's far better we shouldn't discuss
things such as this.'

'Well, practically you have answered. Of course I remember those words
of yours that you refer to. Whether you were right or wrong doesn't
affect what I