_Vivie_: "Dear, brave Bertie, whom I shall everlastingly mourn, was shot here in Brussels by the abominable Germans, as a spy, on April 8th, 1917. He was of course no more a spy than you are or I am. The poor devoted fool--I rage still, because I shall never be worth such folly, such selfless devotion--got into Belgium with false passports--American: in the hope of rescuing me. He came and enquired here--my last address in his remembrance--and came by sheer bad luck just as the Kaiser was about to arrive. They jumped to the conclusion that--" _Rossiter_: "_Awfully, cruelly_ sad. But you can give me the details of it later on. You must have a long, long story of your own to tell which ought to be of poignant interest. But ... will you marry me? I suppose you know dear Linda died--was killed by a bomb in a German air-raid last year--October, 1917. I really felt _heart-broken_ about it, but I know now I am only doing what she would have wished. She came at last to talk about you _quite_ differently, _quite_ understanding--" _Vivie_: "That's what all widowers say. They always declare the dead wife begged them to marry again, and even designated her successor. Poor Linda! Yes, I read an account of it in a copy of the _Times_; but I couldn't of course communicate with you to say how _truly, truly_ sorry I was. I am glad to know she spoke nicely of me. Did she really? Or have you only made it up?" _Michael_: "_Of course_ I haven't. She really did. Do you know, she and I quite altered after the War began? She lost all her old silliness and inefficiency--or at any rate only retained enough of the old childishness to make her endearing. And I really grew to love her. I quite forgot you. Yes: I admit it.... "But somehow, after she was dead the old feeling for you came back ... and without any disloyalty to Linda. I felt in a way--I know it is an absurd thing for a man of science to say, for we have still no proof--I felt somehow as though she lived still. That's why I don't want to get rid of the Park Crescent house. Her presence seems to linger there. But I also knew--instinctively--that she would like us to come together.... She..." _Waiter_ (knocking at door and slightly opening it): "Madame! Le General Tompkins veut vous voir. Il ajoute qu'il n'est pas habitue a attendre. Il y a aussi M'sieur Emile Vandervelde, qui arrive instamment et qui n'a pas d'installation..." _Rossiter_: "Damn! Let me go and settle with 'em. Tompkins! I never heard such cheek--"