I did not seehim again for nearly a week. Then he fetched me soon after seven one eveningand took me out to dinner. He was dressed in the deepest mourning, and on hisbowler was a broad black band. He had even a black border to his handkerchief.His garb of woe suggested that he had lost in one catastrophe every relation hehad in the world, even to cousins by marriage twice removed. His plumpness andhis red, fat cheeks made his mourning not a little incongruous. It was cruelthat his extreme unhappiness should have in it something of buffoonery.

He told me hehad made up his mind to go away, though not to Italy, as I had suggested, butto Holland.

"I'mstarting to-morrow. This is perhaps the last time we shall ever meet. "

I made anappropriate rejoinder, and he smiled wanly.

"I haven'tbeen home for five years. I think I'd forgotten it all; I seemed to have comeso far away from my father's house that I was shy at the idea of revisiting it;but now I feel it's my only refuge. "

又有将近一个星期我没有再看到他。一天晚上刚过七点他来找我，约我出去吃晚饭。他身服重孝，圆顶硬礼帽上系着一条很宽的黑带子，连使用的手帕也镶着黑边。他的这身丧服说明在一次灾祸中他已经失去了世界上的一切亲属，甚至连姨表远亲也没有了。他的肥胖的身躯、又红又胖的面颊同身上的孝服很不协调。老天也真是残忍，竟让他这种无限凄怆悲惨带上某种滑稽可笑的成分。

他告诉我他已打定主意要到外国去，但并不是去我所建议的意大利，而是荷兰。

“我明天就动身。这也许是我们最后一次见面了。”

我说了一句适当的答话，他勉强地笑了笑。

“我已经有五年没回老家了。我想家里的情况我都忘记了。我好象离开祖传的老屋那么遥远，甚至都不好意思再回去探望它了。但是现在我觉得这是我唯一的栖身之地。”