Holding the baby in his arms, he knelt beside the bed. She turned to him. They were face to face. As he began to perceive how she had wasted to a shadow, it did not seem as if he could read enough of the story which was told upon her face. She, in her turn, did not seem as if she could gaze long enough at him. "Geoffrey, do you really mean that if I live, and get well, really and truly well, you will take me for your wife again--that I shall be to you the same wife that I have always been?" "Philippa, if one of us is to die for the other, let me be the one to die." "Geoff, I do believe that if there is anything which must be done, you must be the one to do it. Can't you understand, that if you love to do great things for me, I, also, love to do great things for you. I can't help it. It was that which made me Philip Ayre." "Be Philippa--or Philip Ayre. Only--stay with baby and with me." She was silent for some moments as she lay and looked at him with a singular intensity of gaze. "I think, Geoffrey, I shall live." [Illustration: "'BE PHILIPPA--OR PHILIP AYRE. ONLY--STAY WITH BABY AND WITH ME.'"] THE MOST CRUEL SPORT IN THE WORLD. THE HORRORS OF THE BULL-FIGHT. _By Sidney Gowing._ [Illustration] Do not believe it when you are told that bull-fighting is near its end. The great sport is as popular and deeply rooted in Spain as cricket is in Britain, and will last as long. To attempt to stop bull-fighting by law would cause a bigger revolution among the Spaniards than the most fearful disasters at home or abroad. The great home of bull-fighting is Seville, and when the Seville fights are in their glory even Madrid takes second place. The Seville bull-ring is a little larger than that of Madrid, though it is not quite so gorgeously designed. Still, it holds over 14,000 people. Nearly every Sunday throughout the year there is a bull-fight of sorts to be seen. About 300,000 people go to the bull-fight every week in Spain, on an average. One must also count in an infinite number of little amateur fights in outlying villages of the provinces. [Illustration: THE PROCESSION SALUTING THE PRESIDENT.] [Illustration: THE GORGEOUSLY DRESSED MATADORS ENTERING THE ARENA.] But at a _pukka_ bull-fight in Seville, six of the finest bulls and at least forty horses are provided, to say nothing of the _cortège_ of gold-clad operators drawing terrific salaries. Fashion and the masses turn out together to hoot and whistle and shout, and nothing on earth short of Armageddon could stop a fight half-way. [Illustration: THE CRUELLEST PART OF THE PERFORMANCE.]