The clock chimed five. Her mind grew numb. All power of action was ebbing away from her. She realized that she could do no more. But half dazed as she was by the strong and cruel reaction that had already set in, she yet heard the honk honk of a motor as it entered the Square, followed at once by a sound of wheels. Intensely she listened for the ring of the front door bell. But she listened in vain. In her excitement she got up from the sofa on which she sat. Hardly had she done so when the door opened, and John came into the room. He was still wearing his overcoat and hat. In his ashen face was a look of burning intensity. They stood a moment looking at each other in a silence that was rather grotesque. “Darling ... tell me ... what has happened?” Endor did not answer the question. Or rather, he answered it by taking from a pocket of his overcoat “the late extra” edition of the _Evening Press_. The front page was draped heavily in thick mourning lines. He folded back the paper, set his finger on the middle column, and then handed it to Helen. Her head swam round as she read: TRAGIC DEATH OF SAUL HARTZ The salient facts of the occurrence were that | about three o’clock this afternoon, shortly | | after leaving the Imperium Club in Pall Mall, | | Mr. Hartz was run over and instantly killed. | | According to eye-witnesses of the accident, | | which took place at the bottom of the Haymarket, | | Mr. Hartz was in the act of crossing | | from the Carlton Hotel, when he dropped his | | umbrella in the roadway. As he stooped to | | retrieve it he was knocked down by a newspaper | | van belonging to the Universal Press | | which came round the corner at that moment. | The uncanny silence which gripped them was broken at last by Endor’s high-pitched laugh. “First with the news as usual,” he said. Helen could not speak. “There is a God after all!” said Endor. The still half-terrified eyes of Helen strayed from the ashen face of her husband, in which a new light was breaking, to the chimneypiece and its blue Wedgwood vase. “I wonder,” she gasped, “I wonder!” THE END FOOTNOTE: [A] See _The Undefeated_. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original.