And the modifying effect upon the
week's returns was very perceptible. This was the only form in which a
recognizable vengeance could have reached him. To escape from it, he
had serious thoughts of leaving the place, and setting up in some
remote village.
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
Notwithstanding Alec's diligence and the genial companionship of Mr
Cupples???-whether the death of Kate, or his own illness, or the reaction
of shame after his sojourn in the tents of wickedness, had opened dark
visions of the world of reality lying in awful _unknownness_ around the
life he seemed to know, I cannot tell,-???cold isolations would suddenly
seize upon him, wherein he would ask himself???-that oracular cave in
which one hears a thousand questions before one reply???-"What is the use
of it all???-this study and labour?" And he interpreted the silence to
mean: "Life is worthless. There is no glow in it???-only a glimmer and
shine at best."???-Will my readers set this condition down as one of
disease? If they do, I ask, "Why should a man be satisfied with
anything such as was now within the grasp of Alec Forbes?" And if they
reply that a higher ambition would have set him at peace if not at
rest, I only say that they would be nearer health if they had his
disease.
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