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fession would jump at; the profession was over-crowded,
and half the men he knew would be thankful to accept the
certainty of even so modest a competence as that.
‘I’m awfully sorry, but I can’t,’ he said. ‘It means giving
up everything I’ve aimed at for years. In one way and an-
other I’ve had a roughish time, but I always had that one
hope before me, to get qualified so that I might travel; and
now, when I wake in the morning, my bones simply ache
to get off, I don’t mind where particularly, but just away, to
places I’ve never been to.’
Now the goal seemed very near. He would have finished
his appointment at St. Luke’s by the middle of the follow-
ing year, and then he would go to Spain; he could afford
to spend several months there, rambling up and down the
land which stood to him for romance; after that he would
get a ship and go to the East. Life was before him and time
of no account. He could wander, for years if he chose, in un-
frequented places, amid strange peoples, where life was led
in strange ways. He did not know what he sought or what
his journeys would bring him; but he had a feeling that he
would learn something new about life and gain some clue
to the mystery that he had solved only to find more mysteri-
ous. And even if he found nothing he would allay the unrest
which gnawed at his heart. But Doctor South was showing
him a great kindness, and it seemed ungrateful to refuse
his offer for no adequate reason; so in his shy way, trying to
appear as matter of fact as possible, he made some attempt
to explain why it was so important to him to carry out the
plans he had cherished so passionately.

0 Of Human Bondage