The Return

t with a faint inward dissatisfaction over a patient behind whose taciturnity a hint of mockery and subterfuge seemed to lurk. Even Mrs Lawford had appeared t

ted up to the patient's open window. Sunlight had drawn across his room in one pale beam, and vanished. A few callers had called. Hothouse flowers,

e something, it seemed, towards clarifying his point of view. A consciousness had begun to stir in him that was neither that of the old, easy Lawford, whom he had never been fully aware of before, nor of this strange ghostly intelligence that haunted the hawklike, restless face, and plucked so insistently

ilken coming and going, these Sunday voices, this reiterant yelp of a single peevish bell-would they never cease? And above all, betwixt dread and an almo

and the remembrance of the morning returned to him-the glassy light, the changing rays, the beaming gilt upon the useless books. Now, at last, at the windows; afternoon had begun to wa

te. You have scarcely touched anything to-day, Arthur. I am a poor one to preach, I am afraid; but

church?' he aske

of your illness. Long-continued anxiety, I suppose, does tell on one in time. Anyhow, he said that I looked worried and run-down. I AM worried. Let us both try

; to-night you look prettier: T

uite frankly, what is it in you suggests these remarks at such a time

I'm not, say what you like, blind. You ARE pret

ou are getting better and all that-but supposing you don't change back as Mr Bethany thinks, what will you do? Honestly, Arthur, when I think over it c

k I should marry again.' It was the same wavering, faintly ironic

incredulously the full lips

, de

ous in a most humiliating manner t

bsolute certainty, she wondered even again for a moment if this really could be Arthur. And for the first time she realised the power and mastery of

g more, do you think,

ver his little table. '

iserable. We are going to Mrs Sherwin's, and

ill lock

pe Arthur-no

e over his face. 'I wish you could stay with me,' he said slo

or for a candle in the dark. But an hour's terror i

g for either of us. I shall be gone only for an hour, or two at the most. And I

? She'd worm a secre

s consistently disliked my friends. It's scarcely lik

an. But the door w

called in a b

, Art

taken my

tily in again.

goin

t be so mad, so criminal;

out, I shall certainly go mad. As for criminal-why,

be seen either going or returning; that Alice is bound to discover that you are well enough to go out, and yet not even enough to s

g. It was almost a physical discomfort, this longing unspeakable for the twilight, the green secrecy and the silence of the graves. 'Keep them

elight in trying to estrange me?' Husband and wife faced

said in a quiet, hard voi

his face to the fire. Without moving he heard her go out, return, pause, and go out again. And whe