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tion to pawn things (she had the dressing-case which Philip
had given her as a wedding-present and could raise eight
pounds on that) in order to come up and stay at the market
town four miles from which was the village in which his fa-
ther practised. This frightened Griffiths; and he, this time,
made use of the telegraph wires to tell her that she must
do nothing of the kind. He promised to let her know the
moment he came up to London, and, when he did, found
that she had already been asking for him at the hospital at
which he had an appointment. He did not like this, and, on
seeing her, told Mildred that she was not to come there on
any pretext; and now, after an absence of three weeks, he
found that she bored him quite decidedly; he wondered why
he had ever troubled about her, and made up his mind to
break with her as soon as he could. He was a person who
dreaded quarrels, nor did he want to give pain; but at the
same time he had other things to do, and he was quite de-
termined not to let Mildred bother him. When he met her
he was pleasant, cheerful, amusing, affectionate; he invent-
ed convincing excuses for the interval since last he had seen
her; but he did everything he could to avoid her. When she
forced him to make appointments he sent telegrams to her
at the last moment to put himself off; and his landlady (the
first three months of his appointment he was spending in
rooms) had orders to say he was out when Mildred called.
She would waylay him in the street and, knowing she had
been waiting about for him to come out of the hospital for a
couple of hours, he would give her a few charming, friendly
words and bolt off with the excuse that he had a business