“But that isn’t like you.” She shook her head. “No, it isn’t. Generally my will is rather strong. But in this case— You see—I’d—I’d waited so long—and I’d never believed that you—that you cared anything—and now that I know you do—well, it’s simply made me helpless. I’ve—I’ve no will at all.” “So that I must have enough for two?” “I suppose so.” “And if I—if I carry you off—and make every one unhappy—and put you in a position where you’d be—where you’d be done for—that’s what Annette calls it—the responsibility would be all mine?” “I should never reproach you.” “In words.” “Nor in thought—if I could help it.” “But you mightn’t be able to help it.” To this there was no reply. I took another turn to the end of the room. My freedom of action was terrifying. Since I could do with her what I liked, I was afraid to do anything. I came back and said so. The old Regina woke as she murmured, “If you’re afraid to do anything—do nothing.” “And what would you do?” “I should let things take their course.” “Let things take their course—and marry him?” “If things took their course that way.” “Do you mean that they mightn’t take their course that way?” “I’m not married to him yet. There are—there are difficulties.” I caught her by the arm. “Of what kind?” “Of opinion chiefly—but of very vital opinion.” “Do you mean about the war?” She said with a force like that of a suppressed cry: “He wants me not to have anything more to do with it! And I—I can’t stop—not while it’s going on. I—I must be doing something. It’s one of the reasons why I could marry him—that he’s a doctor—and I could take him over there—where they need him so much.” “And he won’t go?” “He doesn’t say that exactly; but he doesn’t want to. He thinks it’s all wrong—that when it comes to brutality, one side is as bad as the other.” “Oh, he’ll get over that—if you insist; and then you’ll marry him.” “Perhaps so—if I haven’t already married you.” “What makes you think you may have married me?” “You said you’d make me.” And in the end, when Annette came back, we left it at that, with everything up in the air. _CHAPTER XXVI_ More weeks followed, of which my record is chiefly in the drama of public events. Vast as these were at the time, they seem even vaster in the retrospect. As my memory goes back to them they are like prodigious portents in the sky, awful to look at and still more awful to think about. A time will come when we shall find it amazing merely to have lived through such happenings.