Page:HG Wells--secret places of the heart.djvu/114

102 more attractive to his type and far easier and more refreshing to the mind, at the outset, than anything else. And they do work a sort of recovery in him, They send him back to his work refreshed—so far, that is, as his work is concerned.”

“At the outset they are easier,” said the doctor.

Sir Richmond laughed. “When one is fagged it is only the outset counts. The more tired one is the more readily one moves along the line of least resistance....

“That is one footnote to what I said. So far as the motive of my work goes, I think we got something like the spirit of it. What I said about that was near the truth of things....

“But there is another set of motives altogether,” Sir Richmond went on with an air of having cleared the ground for his real business, “that I didn’t go into at all yesterday.”

He considered. “It arises out of these other affairs. Before you realize it your affections are involved. I am a man much swayed by my affections.”

Mr. Martineau glanced at him. There was a note of genuine self-reproach in Sir Richmond’s voice.

“I get fond of people. It is quite irrational, but I get fond of them. Which is quite a different thing from the admiration and excitement of falling in love. Almost the opposite thing. They cry