Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/18

 Wylde is as rich as a Jew." I should not wonder, for there were those on board who knew me, and the snug little  fortune left me by my father had been greatly exaggerated  among my associates in China. Indeed, I often thought of  that, and I found the thought making me so miserable that  I was positively relieved when we reached Hong Kong and  our intimacy was broken off.

“Good-bye,” said Maurice, as I took leave of him on the deck of the Singapore steamer, in which he had taken passage for Saigon, from there to proceed to Panompin, where he  had just been appointed consul. “Good-bye! If you get tired of Swatow take a run down to Cambodia and pay me  a visit. Bring Mrs. Wylde with you and I’ll promise to entertain you both as well as a poor bachelor can.”

Well, when the crisis came, I took the run down to Cambodia, but I did not bring Mrs. Wylde.

Of course I am morbid. I know it. Very likely if I had been different my wife would have been different. There are those who do not hesitate to say so, and doubtless they  are right.

But I am what my hereditary tendencies have made me; or perhaps I should say, what, by a careful fostering of those  tendencies, I have made myself. I had longed to be free from the chains which held me down, but now that freedom  had actually come I found myself bound by chains still  more powerful—regret for what had been, thoughts of what might have been, sad memories of the past.

Not but what Maurice tried to make life pleasant for me at Panompin.

He did everything that a man could do, and I honestly believe that by this time he had conceived as sincere an  affection for me as it is possible for a young man to feel for  a comparative stranger so much his senior.

Indeed, I believe that the trip to Angkor was arranged for my especial benefit, for it was I and not he who had  expressed a desire to visit that wonderful city of the ancient  Buddhists, which has lain buried in the dense forests of  Cambodia for more years than man can count.

We were off within an hour, for the opportunity had presented itself suddenly and had to be embraced at once if at all. Indeed, our departure from Panompin was so hasty that we had barely time to throw together the necessary  articles of clothing, leaving our heavier baggage to be