When he had gone to his own room, and had again thrown himself into the
chair by the fire, Mr Doyce knocked at the door, candle in hand, to
ask him how and at what hour he proposed returning on the morrow? After
settling this question, he said a word to Mr Doyce about this Gowan--who
would have run in his head a good deal, if he had been his rival.
'Those are not good prospects for a painter,' said Clennam.
'No,' returned Doyce. Mr Doyce stood, chamber-candlestick in hand, the other hand in his
pocket, looking hard at the flame of his candle, with a certain quiet
perception in his face that they were going to say something more. 'I
thought our good friend a little changed, and out of spirits, after he
came this morning?' said Clennam. 'Yes,' returned Doyce.
'But not his daughter?' said Clennam. 'No,' said Doyce.
There was a pause on both sides. Mr Doyce, still looking at the flame of
his candle, slowly resumed: 'The truth is, he has twice taken his daughter abroad in the hope of
separating her from Mr Gowan. He rather thinks she is disposed to like
him, and he has painful doubts (I quite agree with him, as I dare say
you do) of the hopefulness of such a marriage.' 'There--' Clennam choked, and coughed, and stopped. 'Yes, you have taken cold,' said Daniel Doyce. But without looking at
him. 'There is an engagement between them, of course?' said Clennam airily.
'No. As I am told, certainly not. It has been solicited on the
gentleman's part, but none has been made. Since their recent return,
our friend has yielded to a weekly visit, but that is the utmost. Minnie
would not deceive her father and mother. You have travelled with them,
and I believe you know what a bond there is among them, extending even
beyond this present life. All that there is between Miss Minnie and Mr
Gowan, I have no doubt we see.' 'Ah! We see enough!' cried Arthur.
Mr Doyce wished him Good Night in the tone of a man who had heard a
mournful, not to say despairing, exclamation, and who sought to infuse
some encouragement and hope into the mind of the person by whom it had
been uttered. Such tone was probably a part of his oddity, as one of
a crotchety band; for how could he have heard anything of that kind,
without Clennam's hearing it too?
The rain fell heavily on the roof, and pattered on the ground, and
dripped among the evergreens and the leafless branches of the trees. The
rain fell heavily, drearily. It was a night of tears.