The Professor Chapter XXI

In which the professor receives two letters—one from a grateful pupil newly ensconced in a better position, and another from a sharp-tongued acquaintance bearing cynical news and looming visits—that stir a tempest of hope, pride, and self-reproach within him. He reflects deeply on his solitary plight, the vexations of poverty, and endeavours to summon courage to seek aid by recalling a past act of kindness, thereby glimpsing a faint path through his current darkness.