Yes, he came back. He had found the house. He got a warrant, and he went with the police when they made their search. He had seen the woman. She brazened it out. She had never heard of either Bettina or me. _My_ story? Oh, very possible, she said, that I and my sister had been "seeing life." No uncommon thing for young women to lie about their escapades. "Drugged?" the usual excuse. The next day I asked them to let me see Ranny. They refused. I did not sleep that night. The doctor came earlier the next morning and was troubled. "What is it?" he said. I told him. "I will promise to be very quiet," I said. I would promise anything if they would only let me see Ranny. Mrs. Harborough went out and sent a message. Mr. Dallas was staying quite near, she said. But I waited for him for a thousand years. And then ... a footstep on the stair. My heart drew quivering back from the two-edged knife of Wanting-to-know and Dreading-to-know. Then all that poignancy of feeling fell to dulness, for the step was not Ranny's and not Eric's. I had never heard this slow, uncertain footfall. The door opened, and it was Ranny. He did not look at me. His eyes went circling low, like swallows before rain. They settled on the coverlid till, slowly, he had come and stood beside me. Then Ranny lifted his eyes.... Oh, poor eyes! Poor soul looking out of them! "Ranny," I whispered, "speak to me." "I have failed," he said. He leaned heavily against the chair. "I have heard," I managed to say, "how hard you have been trying...." "But I have failed!" he said once more; and I hope I may never again hear such an accent. I pointed to the chair ... we could neither of us speak for a while. And then he cleared his throat. "They took her out of that house and hid her," he said. "And then they took her abroad. I traced her to their house in Paris. But she had gone. Always I have been too late." When I could speak I said: "You are a good friend, Ranny...." He made an impatient gesture. "Nothing is any good!" He stood up. "But I wanted you to know that I am trying.... Trying still. Nothing that you could do but I am doing it. Will you believe that?" "But, Ranny," I said, "how can you do all this? Haven't you ... other claims?" "Other claims?" he said, as though he had never heard of them. "You surely did have other claims?" "I thought I had. But when this came I saw they were nothing." He stopped an instant near the door. "You don't believe I would lie to you?" "No," I said. "Then get well. _You_ have something to live for. You and Annan. Not like me." He went out with that strange-sounding step. CHAPTER XXXIV THE END WHICH WAS THE BEGINNING