As soon as I paused from my sport he rose, and, taking his manuscript
from the table, tore it in two, and flung it in the fire--he was but a
very young man, you must remember--and then, standing before me with a
white face, told me, unsolicited, his opinion of me and of my art. After
which double event, it is perhaps needless to say that we parted in hot
anger.

I did not see him again for years. The streets of life are very crowded,
and if we loose each other's hands we are soon hustled far apart. When I
did next meet him it was by accident.

I had left the Whitehall Rooms after a public dinner, and, glad of the
cool night air, was strolling home by the Embankment. A man, slouching
along under the trees, paused as I overtook him.

"You couldn't oblige me with a light, could you, guv'nor?" he said. The
voice sounded strange, coming from the figure that it did.

I struck a match, and held it out to him, shaded by my hands. As the
faint light illumined his face, I started back, and let the match fall:--

"Harry!"

He answered with a short dry laugh. "I didn't know it was you," he said,
"or I shouldn't have stopped you."

"How has it come to this, old fellow?" I asked, laying my hand upon his
shoulder. His coat was unpleasantly greasy, and I drew my hand away
again as quickly as I could, and tried to wipe it covertly upon my