Otway. Olga
replied that she had heard of no such event; that they had received
no news at all of Mr. Otway since his leaving England. This did not
allay an uneasiness which, in various forms, had troubled Irene ever
since she heard that her studious acquaintance had abandoned his
ambitions and gone back to commerce. A few weeks more elapsed, and
--being now in Scotland--she received a confirmation of what
Arnold Jacks had reported. Immediately on reaching Odessa, Piers
Otway had fallen ill, and for a time was in danger. Irene mused. She
would have preferred not to think of Otway at all, but often did so,
and could not help it. A certain reproach of conscience connected
itself with his name. But as time went on, and it appeared that the
young man was settled to his mercantile career in Russia, she
succeeded in dismissing him from her mind.
For the next three years she lived with her father in London; a life
pretty evenly divided between studies and the amusements of her
world.
Dr. Derwent pursued his quiet activity. In a certain sphere he had
reputation; the world at large knew little or nothing of him. All he
aimed at was the diminution of human suffering; whether men thanked
him for his life's labour did not seem to him a point worth
considering. He knew that only his scientific brethren could gauge
the advance in knowledge, and consequent power over disease, due to
his patient toil; it was a question of minute discoveries, of
investigations unintelligible to the layman.
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