keeping myself in constant humiliation and expense by the borrowing
and stringing up of old guitars, together with the breakage of the
same, and the general wear-and-tear on a constitution that is slowly
being sapped to its foundations by exposure in the night-air and the
dew." "And while you receive no further compensation in return," said
John, "than, perhaps, the coy turning up of a lamp at an upper
casement where the jasmine climbs; or an exasperating patter of
invisible palms; or a huge dank wedge of fruit-cake shoved at you by
the old man, through a crack in the door."

"Yes, and I'm going to have my just reward, is what I mean," said
Bert, "and exchange the lover's life for the benedict's. Going to hunt
out a good, sensible girl and marry her." And as the young man
concluded this desperate avowal he jerked the bow of his cravat into a
hard knot, kicked his hat under the bed, and threw himself on the sofa
like an old suit.

John stared at him with absolute compassion. "Poor devil," he said,
half musingly, "I know just how he feels--

'Ring in the wind his wedding chimes,
Smile, villagers, at every door;
Old church-yards stuffed with buried crimes,
Be clad in sunshine o'er and o'er.--'"

"Oh, here!" exclaimed the wretched Bert, jumping to his feet; "let up
on that dismal recitative. It would make a dog howl to hear that!"

"Then you 'let up' on that suicidal talk of marrying," replied John,
"and all that harangue of incoherency about your growing old. Why, my