"Not more now than at any time." "You don't mind what I did, then?" "You didn't do anything." "That's brave of you, Eve, when you hate lies so. You are trying to make me believe that nothing happened out there in the road--that I was just as usual. But I remember perfectly--I sprang at you; if I had been a man--my hands stronger--you wouldn't be here now!" "Fortunately you are not a man, nor anything like one," Eve answered, in the tone of a person who makes a joke. She turned towards the door. "Wait, I want to tell you," said Cicely, going after her, and turning her round with her hands on her shoulders. "This is it, Eve; it comes over me with a rush sometimes, when I look at you--that here you are alive, and _Ferdie_ dead! He was a great deal more splendid than you are, he was so handsome and so young! And yet there he is, down in the ground; and _you_ walking about here! Nothing seems too bad for you then; my feeling is, 'Let her die too! And see how she likes it.'" "I should like it well enough, if somebody else did it," Eve answered. "Death wouldn't be a punishment, Cicely; it would be a release." Cicely's grasp relaxed. "Oh, very well. Then why haven't you tried it?" "Because Paul Tennant is still in the world! I am pusillanimous enough to wish to breathe the same air." "You _do_ love him!" said Cicely. She paused. "Perhaps--after a little--" "No, I have thought it all out; it can never be. If he should come to me this moment, and tell me that he loved me in spite of everything, it wouldn't help me; for I should know that it could not last; I should know that, if I should marry him, sooner or later he would hate me; it would be inevitable. Ferdie's face would come always between us." "I hope it may," said Cicely, savagely. "Why do you keep on staying with me? I don't wish you to stay. Not in the least." "I thought that I could perhaps be of some use. You were so dear to my brother--" "Much you care for poor old Jack now! Even _I_ care more." "Yes, I have changed. But--Jack understands." "A convenient belief!" "And you have his child." --"And I am Paul's sister!" "Yes; I can sometimes hear of Paul through you." Eve's voice, as she said this, was so patient that Cicely was softened. She came to Eve and kissed her. "I am sorry for you, Eve." "Will you promise me to go to bed?" Eve answered, resuming her usual tone, as she turned towards the door. "I must go now, I am tired." Cicely went with her. "I am never sure of myself, Eve," she said, warningly; "I may say just the same things to you to-morrow,--remember that."