"No?"
The less you encouraged him the more likely he was to say what was in
his mind. That had always been his way.
He swung round suddenly. "By the way, Hilton, I want to take that job in
Australia."
"You do?"
"Yes.... _You_ think I ought to, don't you?"
I said: "From the purely personal point of view I'm just hating the
thought of you taking it. But, on the other hand, you must admit it's a
goodish job, as jobs go nowadays."
"Yes.... That's what I feel. And I can't go on like this...."
He dragged a small chair near to the window and sat down. "Aged thirty
and beginning all over again," he went on. "No money. Heavily in debt.
No position. Impossible to think of marriage--even if I wanted to....
And yet, for all that, in the things that really matter, I've succeeded.
I _can_ feel that, can't I?"
I nodded. "From your own point of view, undoubtedly. But there are times
when the material side of life is apt to come to the front rather
awkwardly."
"Yes." His voice was eager, as if he had found me interpreting his own
thoughts. "Hilton, to tell you the truth, I'm in a fix.... I want to
take this job, as I said--in fact, I know I _must_ take it--and yet--and
yet...." He hesitated, and then finished up: "There's such an odd sort
of difficulty in the way."
And as always it had to be wormed out of him by degrees, though the task
was easier through my fairly accurate knowledge of what was coming.
June, he said, had all along been against his taking the job. She had
said it was too far away, and that it wasn't good enough for him. "Of
course I daresay the salary does seem ridiculous to her. She probably
spends three hundred a year on her clothes."
I rather doubted that, but I made no interruption. He went on: "Anyhow,
that doesn't matter.... The point is that after what she said I promised
I'd think it over for a fortnight before deciding.... So now you
understand why it was I couldn't give you a definite answer?"
Yes, I knew, and had guessed for over an hour, though I didn't tell him
that.
"The fortnight ended to-night, and I told her I'd made up my mind to
accept."
"Good."
"But then--more than ever--she seemed against the idea."
"In other words, she asked you not to go?"
"It amounted to that."
"What answer did you give?"
"I said ... I promised again ... that I'd think it over."
That, for some reason or other, made me laugh. "I'm afraid, Terry," I
said, "my cross-examination of you is going to be rather stiff.... First
of all, you say you _want_ to take the job?"
"Yes."
"And yet you told her you'd think it over?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to think it over?"
"I--I suppose so."
"So you haven't quite made up your mind?"
"Well--not absolutely."
"So it comes to this--that a woman's persuasion stands in the way of
what you want to do?"
He shook his head. "No, no. I must take the job. There's no
alternative--I quite see that. But--I don't like to disappoint her."
"Or yourself?"