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‘Which room was he in?’ inquired Goldthorpe. ‘Back or front?’

‘In the front room. The back wasn’t touched.’

Musing on Mr. Spicer’s bad luck–for it seemed as if he had changed from the back to the front room just in order that the chimney might fall on him–Goldthorpe hastened away to the hospital. He could not be admitted to-day, but heard that his friend was doing very well; on the morrow he would be allowed to see him.

So at the visitors’ hour Goldthorpe returned. Entering the long accident ward, he searched anxiously for the familiar face, and caught sight of it just as it began to beam recognition. Mr. Spicer was sitting up in bed; he looked pale and meagre, but not seriously ill; his voice quivered with delight as he greeted the young man.

‘I heard of your inquiring for me yesterday, Mr. Goldthorpe, and I’ve hardly been able to live for impatience to see you. How are you, sir? How are you? And what news about the work, sir?’

‘We’ll talk about that presently, Mr. Spicer. Tell me all about your accident. How came you to be in the front room?’

‘Ah, sir,’ replied the patient, with a little shake of the head, ‘that indeed was singular. Only a few days before, I had made a removal from my room into yours. I call it yours, sir, for I always thought of it as yours; but thank heaven you were not there. Only a few days before. I took that step, Mr. Goldthorpe, for two reasons: first, because water was coming through the roof at the back in rather unpleasant quantities, and secondly, because I hoped to get a little morning sun in the front. The fact is, sir, my room had been just a little depressing. Ah, Mr. Goldthorpe, if you knew how I have missed you, sir! But the work–what news of the work?‘

Smiling as though carelessly, the author made known his good fortune. For a quarter of an hour Mr. Spicer could talk of nothing else.

‘This has completed my cure!’ he kept repeating. ‘The work was composed under my roof, my own roof, sir! Did I not tell you to take heart?’

‘And where are you going to live?’ asked Goldthorpe presently. ‘You can’t go back to the old house.’

‘Alas! no, sir. All my life I have dreamt of the joy of owning a house. You know how the dream was realised, Mr. Goldthorpe, and you see what has come of it at last. Probably it is a chastisement for overweening desires, sir. I should have remembered my position, and kept my wishes within bounds. But, Mr. Goldthorpe, I shall continue to cultivate the garden, sir. I shall put in spring lettuces, and radishes, and mustard and cress. The property is mine till midsummer day. You shall eat a lettuce of my growing, Mr. Goldthorpe; I am bent on that. And how I grieve that you were not with me at the time of the artichokes–just at the moment when they were touched by the first frost!’

‘Ah! They were really good, Mr. Spicer?’

‘Sir, they seemed good to me, very good. Just at the moment of the first frost!’