Chapter 12
It was on the ninth of November, the eve of his own thirty-eighth birthday, as he o?en remembered afterwards.
He was walking home about eleven oclock from Lord Henrys, where he had been dining, and was ed in heavy furs, as the night was cold and foggy. At the er 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 reized him. It was Basil Hallward. A strange sense of fear, for which he could not at, came over him. He made no sign nition a on quickly in the dire 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 araordinary piece of luck! I have been waiting for you in your library ever sinine oclock. 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 wao see you before I left. I thought it was you, or rather your fur coat, as you passed me. But I wasnt quite sure. Didnt ynize me?"
"In this fog, my dear Basil? Why, I t even reize Grosvenor Square. I believe my house is somewhere about here, but I dont feel at all certain about it. I am sorry yoing away, as I have not seen you fes. But I suppose you will be back soon?"
"No: I am going to be out of England for six months. I io take a studio in Paris and shut myself up till I have finished a great picture I have in my head. However, it wasnt about myself I wao talk. Here we are at your door. Let me e in for a moment. I have something to say to you."
"I shall be charmed. But wont you miss your train?" said Dorian Gray languidly as he passed up the steps and opehe door with his latch-key.
The l