He had not troubled at all to
consider whether the news which Durrance had brought should be handed on
to Broad Place.
"You are very thoughtful for others," he said to Durrance.
"It's not to my credit. I practise thoughtfulness for others out of an
instinct of self-preservation, that's all," said Durrance. "Selfishness
is the natural and encroaching fault of the blind. I know that, so I am
careful to guard against it."
He travelled accordingly that morning by branch lines from Hampshire
into Surrey, and came to Broad Place in the glow of the afternoon.
General Feversham was now within a few months of his eightieth year, and
though his back was as stiff and his figure as erect as on that night
now so many years ago when he first presented Harry to his Crimean
friends, he was shrunken in stature, and his face seemed to have grown
small. Durrance had walked with the general upon his terrace only two
years ago, and blind though he was, he noticed a change within this
interval of time. Old Feversham walked with a heavier step, and there
had come a note of puerility into his voice.
"You have joined the veterans before your time, Durrance," he said. "I
read of it in a newspaper.
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