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tion. By the water’s edge were neat cottages with trim, tiny
gardens in front of them; they were inhabited by retired cap-
tains in the merchant service, and by mothers or widows of
men who had gained their living by the sea; and they had
an appearance which was quaint and peaceful. In the little
harbour came tramps from Spain and the Levant, ships of
small tonnage; and now and then a windjammer was borne
in by the winds of romance. It reminded Philip of the dirty
little harbour with its colliers at Blackstable, and he thought
that there he had first acquired the desire, which was now
an obsession, for Eastern lands and sunlit islands in a tropic
sea. But here you felt yourself closer to the wide, deep ocean
than on the shore of that North Sea which seemed always
circumscribed; here you could draw a long breath as you
looked out upon the even vastness; and the west wind, the
dear soft salt wind of England, uplifted the heart and at the
same time melted it to tenderness.
One evening, when Philip had reached his last week with
Doctor South, a child came to the surgery door while the
old doctor and Philip were making up prescriptions. It was
a little ragged girl with a dirty face and bare feet. Philip
opened the door.
‘Please, sir, will you come to Mrs. Fletcher’s in Ivy Lane
at once?’
‘What’s the matter with Mrs. Fletcher?’ called out Doctor
South in his rasping voice.
The child took no notice of him, but addressed herself
again to Philip.
‘Please, sir, her little boy’s had an accident and will you

Of Human Bondage