and to lift her out from the sordid life in which he had found her, for the present he did nothing. Indeed, for the moment he decided after a restless night to abandon Arcadia Street altogether, and to touch again that life to which he most properly belonged. He would go back into that artificial existence, and, looking on this picture and on that, would decide clearly which was the most worthy. Which is to say in other words that the old life still drew him, and that this quixotic thing about which he had concerned himself could be easily laid aside, for a time at least. Thus it happened that Mr. Jordan Tant, in his[57] extremely neat and trim chambers, was informed by his extremely neat and trim man-servant one morning that Mr. Byfield had arrived. At the same moment the man-servant was thrust aside, and Gilbert strode in. [57] "Now, I don't want a lot of fuss, or a lot of talk," said Gilbert, a little impatiently; "you've just got to accept me as I am, and not talk about what I have been, or what I have done. You should know by this time that I cut up my life into slices; and when one slice is done with I go on to the next with a new appetite. Arcadia Street is gone—lost somewhere in the wilds of Islington. I am back again in civilization. What's the news?" "There's no news that I'm aware of," said Mr. Tant, a little sulkily. "What news should there be?" "Something's upset you, Tant," said Gilbert, with a laugh. "Come, now—I'm sure to hear about it sooner or later; why not tell me now?" Jordan Tant stood with his arms folded, and his head a little on one side, and with an aggressive shoulder turned towards the other man. When he began to speak he shook himself almost in the fashion of a spoilt child that resents an injury. "It isn't fair," he said, in his thin voice; "it really isn't fair. You go away for an unlimited time, and in a sense you leave the field to me. I cultivate that field; I'm careful about it; I am attentive and anxious—in fact, I work very hard. Then suddenly you step in, and if I may use such a term in so delicate a matter—you gather the crop." "My dear Tant, you are really more Tant-like[58] than ever," said Gilbert. "Why won't you tell me what you really mean in half a dozen words?" [58] "One word will suffice," said Jordan, turning upon him, and
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