Widdershins

last, at last he knew-knew, and didn't want her. It gave him a miserable, pitiful pang, therefore, when she came again within a week, knocking at

llow up. He thanked her. Then, her business over, she seemed anxious to get away again. Oleron did not se

he staircase there was the sharp sound of splintering wood, and she checked a loud cry. Oleron knew

r foot through o

to her sid

ay! My p

hed hyst

ht-I know I'm

hese splinters away," he m

nd sob that it was her w

ion was no easy matter, and her torn boot showed him h

d!" he muttered o

for anything soon,"

o reascend and to

ckly-let me go qui

a fright

me get away quickly

t wanted, his head dropped as

hoked, broken

gesture, as if she put

, you know what I mean!... But if the other can't be, spare me this no

g; but what could he do-what cou

anted-let me take aw

you are very

esture, as of putting so

ess-don't offer me anything

coat-let me take you to

ven the support of his arm. Sh

Paul.... You will go and see abo

gro

a doctor, will you go a

you? Look, there's

ll him he made off without a word. Elsie seemed anxious for nothing so much as to be clear

ye," sh

hatchet-like "To Let" boards, as if he feared

f his flat, as if he could have walked away from Elsie Bengough's haunting cry that still rang

have persuaded hims

thout lighting candles, he stirred up t

poor E

se sisterly takings of the arm-what a fool he had been!... Well, it was too late now. It was she, not he, who must now act-act by keeping away. He wou

e continued to sit, wincing from time to time a

into dark water, that she might even now be glancing up at the hook on the door, took him. Women had been known to do those things.... Then there would be an inquest, and he himself would be

his panelling.... If only he could have married her!... But he couldn't. Her face had risen before him again as he had seen it on the stairs, drawn with pain and ugly and swo

himself attentively cons

er weight had been as sound as the others. It was inexplicable. If these things could happen, anything could happen. There was not a beam nor a jamb in the place that might not fall without warning, not a plank that m

as one noise which, again not fully conscious of the omission, he had not sought to account for. It had last come some minutes ago; it came again now-a sort of soft sweepi

ith a common fate not far distant that makes it hardly worth while to do anything but love for the time remaining. Strangling sobs, blearing tears, bodies buffeted by sickness, hearts and mind callous and har

g sweep with the almost inaudible crackle in it. Again and again it came, with a curious insistence and urge

bolt upright in his cha

ain; he was trying to at

or a moment, and then went over, setting the fire-irons clattering as it fell. There was

at the empty air with his hand, and backed sl

lation broke from Oleron's

nt he had giv

What's there?

se. That was not something that his stomach turned sick and his mind reeled to entertain. That oth

own voice, seized him. He did not dare to call again. His shaking hand went to his po

hand encountered the mantelpiece, and groped along it. A box of matches fell to the hearth. He could just

se and str

stood on the table. He lighted it, and the flame sank fo

was no

tiful room, he might be preparing a ghost for the future; it had not occurred to him that there might have been a similar merging and coalescence in the past. Yet with this staggering impossibility he was no