He had lived on terms
of closest intimacy with this man for three years, and now his eyes
were opening themselves to the nature of his friend's character.
Cradell was in age three years his senior. "I won't drop him," he
said to himself; "but he is a poor creature." He thought, too, of the
Lupexes, of Miss Spruce, and of Mrs Roper, and tried to imagine what
Lily Dale would do if she found herself among such people. It would
be impossible that she should ever so find herself. He might as well
ask her to drink at the bar of a gin shop as to sit down in Mrs
Roper's drawing-room. If destiny had in store for him such good
fortune as that of calling Lily his own, it was necessary that he
should altogether alter his mode of life.
In truth his hobbledehoyhood was dropping off from him, as its old
skin drops from a snake. Much of the feeling and something of the
knowledge of manhood was coming on him, and he was beginning to
recognise to himself that the future manner of his life must be to
him a matter of very serious concern. No such thought had come near
him when he first established himself in London.
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