head
upward as if towards the inaudible overhead, 'I suppose he can't HEAR?'

Mr Bethany rose cheerfully. 'All right, Danton; I am afraid you are
exactly what the poor fellow in his delirium solemnly asseverated.
And, jesting apart, it is in delirium that we tell our sheer, plain,
unadulterated truth: you're a nicely covered sceptic. Personally, I
refuse to discuss the matter. Mere dull, stubborn prejudice; bigotry, if
you like. I will only remark just this--that Mrs Lawford and I, in our
inmost hearts, know. You, my dear Danton, forgive the freedom, merely
incredulously grope. Faith versus Reason--that prehistoric Armageddon.
Some day, and a day not far distant either, Lawford will come back
to us. This--this shutter will be taken down as abruptly as by some
inconceivably drowsy heedlessness of common Nature it has been put
up. He'll win through; and of his own sheer will and courage. But now,
because I ask it, and this poor child here entreats it, you will say
nothing to a living soul about the matter, say, till Friday? What
step-by-step creatures we are, to be sure! I say Friday because it
will be exactly a week then. And what's a week?--to Nature scarcely
the unfolding of a rose. But still, Friday be it. Then, if nothing has
occurred, we will, we shall HAVE to call a friendly gathering, we shall
be compelled to have a friendly consultation.'

'I'm not, I hope, a brute, Bethany,' said Danton apologetically; 'but,
honestly, speaking for myself, simply as a man of the world, it's a
big risk to be taking on--what shall we call it?--on mere intuition.
Personally, and even in a court of law--though Heaven forbid it ever
reaches that stage--personally, I could swear that the fellow that stood
abusing me there, in that revolting fashion, was not Lawford. It would
be easier even to believe in him, if there were not that--that glaze,
that shocking simulation of the man himself, the very man. But then, I
am a sceptic; I own it. And 'pon my word, Mrs Lawford, there's plenty of
room for sceptics in a world like this.'

'Very well,' said Mr Bethany crisply, 'that's settled, then. With your
permission, my dear,' he added, turning untarnishably clear childlike
eyes on Sheila, 'I will take all risks--even to the foot of the gibbet:
accessory, Danton, AFTER the fact.' And so direct and cloudless was his
gaze that Sheila tried in vain to evade it and to catch a glimpse
of Danton's small agate-like eyes, now completely under mastery,