with dignity.

"I suppose we're all cowards when it comes to the point," said Mrs.
Flushing, rubbing her cheek against the back of the chair. "I'm sure I
am."

"Not a bit of it!" said Mr. Flushing, turning round, for Mr. Pepper took
a very long time to consider his move. "It's not cowardly to wish to
live, Alice. It's the very reverse of cowardly. Personally, I'd like to
go on for a hundred years--granted, of course, that I had the full use
of my faculties. Think of all the things that are bound to happen!"
"That is what I feel," Mrs. Thornbury rejoined. "The changes, the
improvements, the inventions--and beauty. D'you know I feel sometimes
that I couldn't bear to die and cease to see beautiful things about me?"

"It would certainly be very dull to die before they have discovered
whether there is life in Mars," Miss Allan added.

"Do you really believe there's life in Mars?" asked Mrs. Flushing,
turning to her for the first time with keen interest. "Who tells you
that? Some one who knows? D'you know a man called--?"

Here Mrs. Thornbury laid down her knitting, and a look of extreme
solicitude came into her eyes.

"There is Mr. Hirst," she said quietly.

St. John had just come through the swing door. He was rather blown
about by the wind, and his cheeks looked terribly pale, unshorn, and
cavernous. After taking off his coat he was going to pass straight
through the hall and up to his room, but he could not ignore the
presence of so many people he knew, especially as Mrs. Thornbury rose
and went up to him, holding out her hand. But the shock of the warm
lamp-lit room, together with the sight of so many cheerful human beings
sitting together at their ease, after the dark walk in the rain, and the
long days of strain and horror, overcame him completely. He looked at
Mrs. Thornbury and could not speak.

Every one was silent. Mr. Pepper's hand stayed upon his Knight. Mrs.
Thornbury somehow moved him to a chair, sat herself beside him, and with
tears in her own eyes said gently, "You have done everything for your
friend."

Her action set them all talking again as if they had never stopped, and
Mr. Pepper finished the move with his Knight.

"There was nothing to be done," said St. John. He spoke very slowly. "It
seems impossible--"

He drew his hand across his eyes as if some dream came between him and
the others and prevented him from seeing where he was.

"And that poor fellow," said Mrs. Thornbury, the tears f