and I think I ought to defray the expense which it has—eh?”
But this offer was quite distinctly declined. Mr. Eldred, not pressing it, left almost at once: not, however, before Mr. Garrett had insisted upon his taking a note of the class-mark of the Tractate Middoth, which, as he said, Mr. Eldred could at leisure get for himself. But Mr. Eldred did not reappear at the library.
William Garrett had another visitor that
day in the person of a contemporary and
colleague from the library, one George Earle.
Earle had been one of those who found
Garrett lying insensible on the floor just
inside the “class” or cubicle (opening upon
the central alley of a spacious gallery) in
which the Hebrew books were placed, and
Earle had naturally been very anxious about
his friend's condition. So as soon as
library hours were over he appeared at the
lodgings. “Well,” he said (after other conversation), “I've no notion what it was that put
