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these days you’ll find yourself in the street.’
Philip longed to give him a punch on the nose, but he
restrained himself. After all it could not possibly last much
longer, and then he would he done with all these people for
ever. Sometimes in comic desperation he cried out that his
uncle must be made of iron. What a constitution! The ills he
suffered from would have killed any decent person twelve
months before. When at last the news came that the Vicar
was dying Philip, who had been thinking of other things,
was taken by surprise. It was in July, and in another fort-
night he was to have gone for his holiday. He received a letter
from Mrs. Foster to say the doctor did not give Mr. Carey
many days to live, and if Philip wished to see him again
he must come at once. Philip went to the buyer and told
him he wanted to leave. Mr. Sampson was a decent fellow,
and when he knew the circumstances made no difficulties.
Philip said good-bye to the people in his department; the
reason of his leaving had spread among them in an exag-
gerated form, and they thought he had come into a fortune.
Mrs. Hodges had tears in her eyes when she shook hands
with him.
‘I suppose we shan’t often see you again,’ she said.
‘I’m glad to get away from Lynn’s,’ he answered.
It was strange, but he was actually sorry to leave these
people whom he thought he had loathed, and when he
drove away from the house in Harrington Street it was with
no exultation. He had so anticipated the emotions he would
experience on this occasion that now he felt nothing: he was
as unconcerned as though he were going for a few days’ hol-

0 Of Human Bondage