In such companionship as ours, it
would have been difficult--even had I wished it--to keep up the
ordinary relations of master and man; and more than once you have had
opportunities of satisfying whatever curiosity you may have felt
about my--my past. Believe me, Caleb, I have noted your forbearance,
and thank you for it."
Caleb moved uneasily, but was silent.
"But my life has been too lonely for me," pursued his master wearily.
"On general grounds one would not imagine the life of a successful
hermit to demand any rare qualifications. It is humiliating, but
even as a hermit I am a failure: for instance, you see, I want to
talk."
His hearer, though puzzled by the words, vaguely understood the smile
of self-contempt with which they were closed.
"As a woman-hater, too, my performances are beneath contempt.
I _did_ think," said Mr. Fogo with something of testiness in his
voice, "I should prove an adequate woman-hater, whereas it happens--"
He broke off suddenly, and took a turn or two up and down the room.
Caleb could have finished the sentence for him, but refrained.
"Surely," said Mr. Fogo, pausing suddenly in his walk, "surely the
conditions were favourable enough. Listen. It is not so very long
ago since I possessed ambitions--hopes; hopes that I hugged to myself
as only a silent man may.
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