His face went white, but he smiled and rose,--came back swiftly to kiss her hands--then entered the house and telephoned to New York. When he came back to her she was ready to rise, lean on his arm, and walk leisurely to the house. On the way she called his attention to a pale blue sheet of forget-me-nots spreading under the shrubbery. She noticed other new blossoms in the garden, lingered before the bed of white pansies. "Like little faces," she said with a faint smile. One silvery-grey iris he broke from its sheathed stem and gave her; she moved slowly on with the scented blossom lifted to her lips. In the hall a starched and immaculate nurse met her with a significant nod of understanding. And so, between Clive and the trained nurse she mounted the stairs to her room. Later Clive came in to sit beside her where she lay on her dainty bed. She turned her flushed face on the pillow, smiled at him, and lifted her neck a little; and he slipped one arm under it. "Such a wonderful pillow your shoulder makes," she murmured.... "I am thinking of the first time I ever knew it.... So quiet I lay,--such infinite caution I used whenever I moved.... That night the air was musical with children's voices--everywhere under the stars--softly garrulous, laughing, lisping, calling from the hills and meadows.... That night of miracles and of stars--my dear--my dearest!--" * * * * * Close to her cheek he breathed: "Are you in pain?" "Oh, Clive! I am so happy. I love you so--I love you so." Then nurse and physician came in and the latter took him by the arm and walked out of the room with him. For a long while they paced the passage-way together in whispered conversation before the nurse came to the door and nodded. Both went in: Athalie laughed and put up her arms as Clive bent over her. "All will be well," she whispered, kissed him, then turned her head sharply to the right. When he found himself in the garden, walking at random, the sun hung a hand's breadth over the woods. Later it seemed to become entangled amid new leaves and half-naked branches, hanging there motionless, blinding, glittering through an eternity of time. And yet he did not notice when twilight came, nor when the dusk's purple turned to night until he saw lights turned up on both floors. Nobody summoned him to dinner but he did not notice that. Connor came to him there in the darkness and said that two other physicians had arrived with another nurse. He went into the library where they were just leaving to mount the stairs. They looked at him as they passed but merely bowed and said nothing. A steady, persistent clangour vibrated in his brain, dulling it, so that senses like sight and hearing seemed slow as though drugged.