Page 759 - of-human-bondage-

very kind to him, and Philip, always surprised when any-
one took trouble with him, was touched and grateful. He
enjoyed the relief from care; he need not worry there about
the future, neither whether his money would last out nor
whether he would pass his final examinations; and he could
read to his heart’s content. He had not been able to read
much of late, since Mildred disturbed him: she would make
an aimless remark when he was trying to concentrate his
attention, and would not be satisfied unless he answered;
whenever he was comfortably settled down with a book she
would want something done and would come to him with a
cork she could not draw or a hammer to drive in a nail.
They settled to go to Brighton in August. Philip wanted
to take lodgings, but Mildred said that she would have to do
housekeeping, and it would only be a holiday for her if they
went to a boarding-house.
‘I have to see about the food every day at home, I get that
sick of it I want a thorough change.’
Philip agreed, and it happened that Mildred knew of a
boarding-house at Kemp Town where they would not be
charged more than twenty-five shillings a week each. She
arranged with Philip to write about rooms, but when he got
back to Kennington he found that she had done nothing.
He was irritated.
‘I shouldn’t have thought you had so much to do as all
that,’ he said.
‘Well, I can’t think of everything. It’s not my fault if I for-
get, is it?’
Philip was so anxious to get to the sea that he would

Of Human Bondage