He is painfully conscious
of his own deficiency, and painfully anxious, as you must have seen, to
hide it from observation. If he could only have recovered in a complete
state of oblivion as to the past, he would have been a happier man.
Perhaps we should all be happier," he added, with a sad smile, "if we
could but completely forget!"
"There are some events surely in all men's lives," I replied, "the
memory of which they would be unwilling entirely to lose?"
"That is, I hope, to be said of most men, Mr. Blake. I am afraid it
cannot truly be said of ALL. Have you any reason to suppose that the
lost remembrance which Mr. Candy tried to recover--while you were
speaking to him just now--was a remembrance which it was important to
YOU that he should recall?"
In saying those words, he had touched, of his own accord, on the very
point upon which I was anxious to consult him. The interest I felt in
this strange man had impelled me, in the first instance, to give him the
opportunity of speaking to me; reserving what I might have to say, on my
side, in relation to his employer, until I was first satisfied that he
was a person in whose delicacy and discretion I could trust.
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