Well, he had had certain aspirations, dreams, visions....

He was upon the crest whence the road ran down into Tidborough. Beneath
him the spires of the Cathedral lifted exquisitely above the surrounding
city.

"Those houses in King's Close are going to be eighty pounds a year, and
what do you think, Mrs. Toller is going to take one!"...

CHAPTER II

I

Sabre found but little business awaiting him when he got to his office.
When he had disposed of it he sat some little time staring
absent-mindedly at the cases whereon were ranged the books of his
publication. Then he took out the manuscript of "England" and turned
over the pages. He wondered what Nona would think of it. He would like
to tell her about it.

Twyning came in.

Twyning rarely entered Sabre's room. Sabre did not enter Twyning's twice
in a year. Their work ran on separate lines and there was something,
unexpressed, the reverse of much sympathy between them. Twyning was an
older man than Sabre. He was only two years older in computation by age
but he was very much more in appearance, in manner and in business
experience. He had been in the firm as a boy checker when Sabre was
entering Tidborough School. He had attracted Mr. Fortune's special
attention by disclosing a serious scamping of finish in a set of desks
and he had risen to head clerk when Sabre was at Oxford. On the day that
Sabre entered the firm he had been put "on probation" in the position he
now held, and on the day that Sabre's father retired he had been
confirmed in the position. He regarded Sabre as an amateur and he was
privately disturbed by the fact that a man who "did not know the ropes"
and had not "been through the mill" should come to a position equal in
standing to his own. Nevertheless he accepted the fact, showing not the
smallest animosity. He was always very ready to be cordial towards
Sabre; but his cordiality took a form in which Sabre had never seen eye
to eye with him. The attitude he extended to Sabre was that he and Sabre
were two young fellows under a rather pig-headed old employer and that
they could have many jokes and grievances and go-ahead schemes in
companionship together. Sabre did not accept this view. He gave Twyning,
from the first, the impression of considering himself as working
alongside Mr. Fortune instead of beneath him; and he was cold to and
refused to participate in the truant schoolboy air which Twyning adopted
when they were together. Twynin