XXXI
MEDIOCRITY VERSUS GENIUS
Northcote could confess no surprise. But it
struck him with a sense of drama, the thrill of the
unexpected which underlies the impact of the common,
that he should not have discerned the end of
this aged man to be so near. The sounds he had
heard as he rushed from the room must have been
caused by that venerable figure falling to the floor.
Sharply, however, as he felt the knife of reality
in all its brutal power, he yet refrained from speculating
upon the scope of its present operation. He
was now tired out; his brain was heavy. He
pushed on straight to his attic, climbed the dark
stairs, and in a little while was curled under a
blanket with a merciful sleep blotting out the actual.
He was summoned peremptorily from oblivion by the noise made by the old charwoman in drawing back the curtains which divided his garret into two apartments.
"Quarter to eight, sir."
"Ay, ay," he muttered, stretching his limbs and brushing the sleep from his eyes. His slumber had been that of abject weariness; deep, dreamless, undisturbed. He jumped out of bed, slipped on a dressing-gown that hung in rags, and felt himself to be once more the complete and valiant man.
When he sat down to breakfast he sent out the
