ng. He had been
building those pernicious castles in the air during more than half
the time; not castles in the building of which he could make himself
happy, as he had done in the old days, but black castles, with cruel
dungeons, into which hardly a ray of light could find its way. In all
these edifices his imagination pictured to him Lily as the wife of
Mr Crosbie. He accepted that as a fact, and then went to work in his
misery, making her as wretched as himself, through the misconduct and
harshness of her husband. He tried to think, and to resolve what he
would do; but there is no task so hard as that of thinking, when the
mind has an objection to the matter brought before it. The mind,
under such circumstances, is like a horse that is brought to the
water, but refuses to drink. So Johnny returned to his home, still
doubting whether or no he would answer Amelia's letter. And if he did
not answer it, how would he conduct himself on his return to Burton
Crescent?

I need hardly say that Miss Roper, in writing her letter, had been
aware of all this, and that Johnny's position had been carefully
prepared for him by his affectionate sweetheart.

CHAPTER XI

Social Life

Mr and Mrs Lupex had eaten a sweetbread together in much connubial
bliss on that day which had seen Cradell returning to Mrs Roper's
hospitable board. They had together eaten a sweetbread, with
some other delicacies of the season, in the neighbourhood of the
theatre, and had washed down all unkindness with bitter beer and
brandy-and-water. But of this reconciliation Cradell had not heard;
and when he saw them come together into the drawing-room, a few
minutes after the question he had addressed to Miss Spruce, he was
certainly surprised.

Lupex was not an ill-natured man, nor one naturally savage by
disposition. He was a man fond of sweetbread and little dinners, and
one to whom hot brandy-and-water was too dear. Had the wife of his
bosom been a good helpmate to him, he might have gone through the
world, if not respectably, at any rate without open disgrace. But
she was a woman who left a man no solace except that to be found in
brandy-and-water. For eight years they had been man and wife; and
sometimes--I grieve to say it--he had been driven almost to hope
that she would commit a married woman's last sin, and leave him. In
his misery, any mode of escape would have been welcome to him. Had
his energy been sufficient he would have taken his