Page 962 - of-human-bondage-

Doctor South listened quietly, and a gentle look came into
his shrewd old eyes. It seemed to Philip an added kindness
that he did not press him to accept his offer. Benevolence is
often very peremptory. He appeared to look upon Philip’s
reasons as sound. Dropping the subject, he began to talk of
his own youth; he had been in the Royal Navy, and it was
his long connection with the sea that, when he retired, had
made him settle at Farnley. He told Philip of old days in the
Pacific and of wild adventures in China. He had taken part
in an expedition against the head-hunters of Borneo and
had known Samoa when it was still an independent state.
He had touched at coral islands. Philip listened to him en-
tranced. Little by little he told Philip about himself. Doctor
South was a widower, his wife had died thirty years before,
and his daughter had married a farmer in Rhodesia; he had
quarrelled with him, and she had not come to England for
ten years. It was just as if he had never had wife or child. He
was very lonely. His gruffness was little more than a protec-
tion which he wore to hide a complete disillusionment; and
to Philip it seemed tragic to see him just waiting for death,
not impatiently, but rather with loathing for it, hating old
age and unable to resign himself to its limitations, and yet
with the feeling that death was the only solution of the bit-
terness of his life. Philip crossed his path, and the natural
affection which long separation from his daughter had
killed—she had taken her husband’s part in the quarrel and
her children he had never seen—settled itself upon Philip.
At first it made him angry, he told himself it was a sign of
dotage; but there was something in Philip that attracted

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