in the backwater, out of the throng of existence. He had been
trying to reconcile himself to the idea that he was "out of it," as he
had put it to himself--left behind. And now he shared with the two great
potentates of the world the knowledge of what was going to take place;
it was his hand that should transcribe the words that had decided it; he
was a witness, and so far the only one. Then with an effort he forced
himself to be calm. Every minute was of importance. He sat down at the
writing-table, took up the paper, and pored over it to try to
disentangle the strange dots, scratches, and lines which, flowing from
Stamfordham's pen, took the place of handwriting. Some ill-natured
people said that Stamfordham was quite conscious of the advantage of
having writing which could not be read without a close scrutiny. It was
no doubt possible. However, having the clue to what the contents of the
paper were, Rendel, to his immense relief, found that he could decipher
it. As he was writing the first word of the fair copy the door of the
study opened slowly, and Sir William Gore appeared on the threshold, a
newspaper in his hand.

CHAPTER XIII

Sir William, who had not been able to come downstairs for a month, may
be forgiven for unconsciously feeling that the occasion was one which
demanded from his son-in-law a semblance of cordial welcome at any rate,
if not of glad surprise. It is an extraordinarily difficult thing to
learn that we are not looking each of us at the same aspect of life as
our neighbour, especially our neighbour of a different time of life from
ourselves. We appeal to him as a matter of course, and say, "Look! see
how life appears to me to-day! see what existence is like in relation to
myself!" But unfortunately the neighbour, who is standing on the outside
of that particular circle, and not in its centre, does not see what we
mean. Sir William had been shut up for a month in the room that he
inhabited on the drawing-room floor of the house in Cosmo Place. He had
simply not had mental energy to care about what was happening beyond the
four walls of that room. If he had been asked at that moment what the
universe was, he would have said that it was a succession of days and
nights in which the important things of life were the hours and
compositions of his meals, the probable hour of the doctor's visit, and
the steps to be made each day towards recovery and the resumption of
ordinary habits.

Rachel