Mr.
Carlyon is always worrying about him." Malcolm tried to express his sympathy properly, but he felt he acquitted himself badly.

Was this the reason, he wondered, why Elizabeth had looked so grave?
but he thought it wiser not to dwell on the subject.
Malcolm was having a bad time just then.

The excitement of the Jacobi episode had roused him for a while, but now natural reaction had set in, and the deadness and dulness of his daily routine oppressed him intolerably.

Nothing interested him--nothing gave him pleasure.

His literary work, the society of his friends, even his nightly "smokes" with the faithful Goliath, were like the dust and bitterness of the apples of Sodom.