it was the autumn of the year, in the spring of which walter joyce had returned to london from westhope. six months had elapsed since he had read what he had almost imagined to be his death-warrant in marian's reply to his letter containing the berlin proposal. it was not his death-warrant; he had survived the shock, and, indeed, had borne the disappointment in a way that he did not think possible when the blow first fell upon him. under the blessed, soothing influence of time, under the perhaps more effectual influence of active employment, his mind had been weaned from dwelling on that dread blank which, as he at first imagined, was to have been his sole outlook for the future. he was young, and strong, and impressionable; he returned to london inclined to be misanthropical and morose, disposed to believe in the breaking of hearts and the crushing of hopes, and the rather pleasant sensations of despair. but after a very short sojourn in the metropolis, he was compelled to avow to himself the wisdom of lady caroline mansergh's prognostications concerning him, and the absolute truth of everything she had said. a life of moping, of indulgence in preposterous cynicism and self-compassion, was not for him; he was meant for far better things--action in the present, distinction in the future--those were to be his aims, and after a fortnight's indolence and moodiness, he had flung himself into the work that was awaiting him, and begun to labour at it with all his energy and all his brain-power.
some little time afterwards, when joyce thought over his mental condition in those first days of his return to london, the cheap cynicism, the pettishness, and the languor which he had suffered to possess him, he wondered why old jack byrne, with whom he had taken up his quarters, had not rebuked him for it, and one day, with some considerable confusion, he asked the old man the reason.
"why didn't i speak to you about it, and pitch into you for it, my boy?" said the old man, with his peculiar soft laugh. "because it's best to let some things have their run, and come to a stop of their own accord. i saw plainly enough what would be the result of that love business, long ago, when you first told me of it. why didn't i say so then? why, you don't imagine i should have attempted to influence you in such a matter, when i had never even seen the lady, and had only general experience to take as my guide? i did give you as many hints as i thought prudent or decent in a letter which i wrote to you, my lad; but you didn't seem to profit by them much, or, indeed, to take any heed of them. you went sailing away straight and smoothly enough until that squall came down upon you and carried away your masts and your rigging, and left you a helpless log tossing on the waters. it was so nice to be a helpless log, wasn't it?--so nice that you thought you would never be anything else. but, god bless you, i knew differently; i'd seen the same case a hundred times before, and i knew if you were left alone you would come all right in time. and now you have come all right, and you're doing your work well, and they think highly of you at the comet office."
