solid and ugly; it would go for nothing at an auction.  There were three or four thousand books, but everyone knew how badly they sold, and it was not probable that they would fetch more than a hundred pounds.  Philip did not know how much his uncle would leave, and he reckoned out for the hundredth time what was the least sum upon which he could finish the curriculum at the hospital, take his degree, and live during the time he wished to spend on hospital appointments.  He looked at the old man, sleeping restlessly:  there was no humanity left in that shrivelled face; it was the face of some queer animal.  Philip thought how easy it would be to finish that useless life.  He had thought it each evening when Mrs. Foster prepared for his uncle the medicine which was to give him an easy night.  There were two bottles:  one contained a drug which he took regularly, and the other an opiate if the pain grew unendurable.  This was poured out for him and left by his bed-side.  He generally took it at three or four in the morning.  It would be a simple thing to double the dose; he would die in the night, and no one would suspect anything; for that was how Doctor Wigram expected him to die.  The end would be painless.  Philip clenched his hands as he thought of the money he wanted so badly.  A few more months of that wretched life could matter nothing to the old man, but the few more months meant everything to him:  he was getting to the end of his endurance, and when he thought of going back to work in the morning he shuddered with horror.  His heart beat quickly at the thought which obsessed him, and though he made an effort to put it out of his mind he could not.  It would be so easy, so desperately easy.  He had no feeling for the old man, he had never liked him; he had been selfish all his life, selfish to his wife who adored him, indifferent to the boy who had been put in his charge; he was not a cruel man, but a stupid, hard man, eaten up with a small sensuality.  It would be easy, desperately easy.  Philip did not dare.  He was afraid of remorse; it would be no good having the money if he regretted all his life what he had done.  Though he had told himself so often that regret was futile, there were certain things that came back to him occasionally and worried him.  He wished they were not on his conscience.

His uncle opened his eyes; Philip was glad, for he looked a little more human then.  He was frankly horrified at the idea that had come to him, it was murder that he was meditating; and he wondered if other people had such thoughts or whether he was abnormal and depraved.  He supposed he could not have done it when it came to the point, but there the thought was, constantly recurring:  if he held his hand it was from fear.  His uncle spoke.

“You’re not looking forward to my death, Philip?” Philip felt his heart beat against his chest.

“Good heavens, no.”

“That’s a good boy.  I shouldn’t like you to do that.  You’ll get a little bit of money when I pass away, but you mustn’t look forward to it.  It wouldn’t profit you if you did.”