rom lips on lips yet warm from
disagreement.

Ever since, as if in compunction, she had been wavering towards his
point of view; and now, when he was perhaps to solve the problem--find
out for certain--she had come to feel that if he died, she would never
see him after. It was cruel that such a blight should have come on her
belief at this, of all moments.

She laid her hand on his. It was warm, felt strong, although so
motionless and helpless. George was so vigorous, so alive, and
strong-willed; it seemed impossible that life might be going to play him
false. She recalled the unflinching look of his steel-bright eyes, his
deep, queerly vibrating voice, which had no trace of self-consciousness
or pretence. She slipped her hand on to his heart, and began very
slowly, gently rubbing it. He, as doctor, and she, as nurse, had both
seen so much of death these last two years! Yet it seemed suddenly as if
she had never seen death, and that the young faces she had seen, empty
and white, in the hospital wards, had just been a show. Death would
appear to her for the first time, if this face which she loved were to
be drained for ever of light and colour and movement and meaning.

A humblebee from the Square Garden boomed in and buzzed idly round the
room. She caught her breath in a little sob....

2

Pierson received that telegram at midday, returning from a lonely walk
after his talk with Thirza. Coming from Gratian so self-reliant--it
meant the worst. He prepared at once to catch the next train. Noel was
out, no one knew where: so with a sick feeling he wrote:

"DEAREST CHILD,

"I am going up to Gratian; poor George is desperately ill. If it goes
badly you should be with your sister. I will wire to-morrow morning
early. I leave you in your aunt's hands, my dear. Be reasonable and
patient. God bless you.

"Your devoted

"DADDY."

He was alone in his third-class compartment, and, leaning forward,
watched the ruined Abbey across the river till it was out of sight.
Those old monks had lived in an age surely not so sad as this. They must
have had peaceful lives, remote down here, in days when the Church was
great and lovely, and men laid down their lives for their belief in her,
and built everlasting fanes to the glory of God! What a change to this
age of rush and hurry, of science, trade, material profit, and this
terrible war! He tried to read his paper, but it was full of horrors and
hate. 'When will it end?'