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Hayward could never resist the opportunity which
Weeks offered him of regaining ground lost on a previous
occasion, and Weeks was able with the greatest ease to draw
him into a discussion. Though he could not help seeing how
small his attainments were beside the American’s, his Brit-
ish pertinacity, his wounded vanity (perhaps they are the
same thing), would not allow him to give up the struggle.
Hayward seemed to take a delight in displaying his igno-
rance, self-satisfaction, and wrongheadedness. Whenever
Hayward said something which was illogical, Weeks in a
few words would show the falseness of his reasoning, pause
for a moment to enjoy his triumph, and then hurry on to
another subject as though Christian charity impelled him
to spare the vanquished foe. Philip tried sometimes to put
in something to help his friend, and Weeks gently crushed
him, but so kindly, differently from the way in which he an-
swered Hayward, that even Philip, outrageously sensitive,
could not feel hurt. Now and then, losing his calm as he
felt himself more and more foolish, Hayward became abu-
sive, and only the American’s smiling politeness prevented
the argument from degenerating into a quarrel. On these
occasions when Hayward left Weeks’ room he muttered an-
grily:
‘Damned Yankee!’
That settled it. It was a perfect answer to an argument
which had seemed unanswerable.
Though they began by discussing all manner of subjects
in Weeks’ little room eventually the conversation always
turned to religion: the theological student took a profes-

1 Of Human Bondage