Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

It was on the ninth of November, the eve of his own thirty-eighth birthday,
as he often remembered afterwards.

He was walking home about eleven o'clock from Lord Henry's, where he had
been dining, and was wrapped in heavy furs, as the night was cold and foggy.
At the corner of Grosvenor Square and South Audley Street, a man passed him in
the mist, walking very fast and with the collar of his grey ulster turned up.
He had a bag in his hand. Dorian recognized him. It was Basil Hallward.
A strange sense of fear, for which he could not account, came over him.
He made no sign of recognition and went on quickly in the direction of his
own house.

But Hallward had seen him. Dorian heard him first stopping
on the pavement and then hurrying after him. In a few moments,
his hand was on his arm.

"Dorian! What an extraordinary piece of luck! I have been
waiting for you in your library ever since nine o'clock. Finally
I took pity on your tired servant and told him to go to bed,
as he let me out. I am off to Paris by the midnight train,
and I particularly wanted to see you before I left.
I thought it was you, or rather your fur coat, as you passed me.
But I wasn't quite sure. Didn't you recognize me?"

"In this fog, my dear Basil? Why, I can't even recognize Grosvenor Square.
I believe my house is somewhere about here, but I don't feel at all certain
about it. I am sorry you are going away, as I have not seen you for ages.
But I suppose you will be back soon?"

"No: I am going to be out of England for six months.
I intend to take a studio in Paris and shut myself up till I have
finished a great picture I have in my head. However, it wasn't
about myself I wanted to talk. Here we are at your door.
Let me come in for a moment. I have something to say
to you."

"I shall be charmed. But won't you miss your train?" said Dorian Gray
languidly as he passed up the steps and opened the door with his latch-key.

The lamplight struggled out through the fog, and Hallward looked
at his watch. "I have heaps of time," he answered. "The train
doesn't go till twelve-fifteen, and it is only just eleven.
In fact, I was on my way to the club to look for you, when I met you.
You see, I shan't have any delay about luggage, as I have sent on my
heavy things. All I have with me is in this bag, and I can easily
get to Victoria in twenty minutes."

Dorian looked at him and smiled. "What a way for a fashionable
painter to travel! A Gladstone bag and an ulster! Come in,
or the fog will get into the house. And mind you don't
talk about anything serious. Nothing is serious nowadays.
At least nothing should be."

Hallward shook his head, as he entered, and followed Dorian