Adventures in Contentment

He was trembling with excitement and pale with emotion and weariness. One must begin the quiet life with rest. So I got him off to bed, first pouring him a bathtub of warm water. I laid out clean clothes by his bedside and took away his old ones, talking to him cheerfully all the time about common things. When I finally left him and came downstairs I found Harriet standing with frightened eyes in the middle of the kitchen. "I'm afraid to have him sleep in this house," she said. But I reassured her. "You do not understand," I said. Owing to the excitement of the evening I spent a restless night. Before daylight, while I was dreaming a strange dream of two men running, the one who pursued being the exact counterpart of the one who fled, I heard my name called aloud: "David, David!" I sprang out of bed. "The tramp has gone," called Harriet. He had not even slept in his bed. He had raised the window, dropped out on the ground and vanished.