I asked no questions, for I knew he couldn't say more than he was saying. His nerves were in shreds, racked between that dreadful sense of personal responsibility and the still passionate ideal that made him hope that by some stupendous effort he could put everything right.... And then, quite suddenly, he threw down his pen and walked across the room. "I _will_ tell her," he said. "I _must_--there's no hope any other way.... I'll leave to-night--by the express--and be in London by Wednesday.... Oh, I _must_ go--can't you see that I _must_--_can't_ you?" IV I couldn't--I couldn't see anything for a while; it had all happened too suddenly.... And then, when I began to realize, it was too late; arguing was no use. Of the countless reasons why he shouldn't go, not one was apparent to him; he spoke of going as a sinner might speak of his conversion. "Somehow or other," he said, "I shall be able to help." He was certain of it. And with the certainty came, once again, optimism--a childish optimism that made him hope that Severn wasn't badly hurt (although the report most distinctly stated that he was), and that all would be well in some vague and shadowy future. Of course I raised objections; in fact, the more I thought of it, the more monstrous it seemed that he, of all people, and then, of all times, should meet Helen. What good, I asked him, did he think he could achieve by seeing her? He repeated that he could _help_. But how? Was it likely that she would fail her husband in such an emergency, and wasn't it far more likely that she would be insulted at the mere suggestion of such a thing? He said that I hadn't understood him. He paused for a while, and I could almost see him struggling physically to put what he felt into words. Then victory came to him like a sharp explosion; he went on, with staccato excitement: "You see--I've made such a terrible hash of everything--right from the beginning. It's all led up to this--just one mistake after another.... I began it, and I've got to end it. I tell you, I've _got_ to end it. Nobody can end it but me.... We were all friends once, and we've all got to be friends again--whatever happens. It doesn't work--to put people outside your life. You can't do it, even when you try, and you daren't do it, even if you could...." "So it all amounts to this--that you're going to put Helen back into your life?"