the wall and gather the flies of gossip about its stain, but the end
of it must be that the wall would still stand, whereas the egg would no
longer be an egg. The second plan had more attractions, but my resources
were now too low to allow me to put it into practice. Therefore, having
no other choice, I was forced to adopt the third, and, exercising
that divine patience which characterises the Eastern nations but is so
lacking in our own, to attend humbly upon fate until it should please it
to deal to me a card that I could play.

In time fate dealt to me that card and my long suffering was rewarded,
for it proved a very ace of trumps. It happened thus.

About a year after I arrived in Dunchester I was elected a member of the
City Club. It is a pleasant place, where ladies are admitted to lunch,
and I used it a good deal in the hope of making acquaintances who might
be useful to me. Among the _habitues_ of this club was a certain Major
Selby, who, having retired from the army and being without occupation,
was generally to be found in the smoking or billiard room with a large
cigar between his teeth and a whisky and soda at his side. In face, the
Major was florid and what people call healthy-looking, an appearance
that to a doctor's eye very often conveys no assurance of physical
well-being. Being a genial-mannered man, he would fall into conversation
with whoever might be near to him, and thus I came to be slightly
acquainted with him. In the course of our chats he frequently mentioned
his ailments, which, as might be expected in the case of such a
luxurious liver, were gouty in their origin.

One afternoon when I was sitting alone in the smoking-room, Major Selby
came in and limped to an armchair.