Everybody was very kind to him, that evening, and thought he should not only have a nice, quiet day following, but a nice, quiet night straight away, so he was packed off to bed soon after dinner was over. As he crossed the hall to the foot of the stairs--very slowly, for he was afraid of the night--Dandy came out of the smoke-room to meet him. She looked singularly radiant, he thought, from the depths of his own chill fear. Beyond, he could hear Hamer at the telephone. “You’re going up? That’s right!” she said with a relieved air. People always think things are going to straighten themselves out when they have persuaded you to do something unpleasant. She gave him her hand with a kindly pressure. “Are you sure you have everything you want? Isn’t there _really_ something more we can give you or do for you? You’ve had such a fearfully hard day, and you’re so tired! And, look here, you must promise--promise faithfully, or I won’t let you go--that if you feel bad in the morning you’ll let us know, first thing. I’d never forgive myself if we went off for a day’s pleasure, leaving you to be ill all alone.” She wrinkled her brow, looking at him very earnestly. “I sometimes wonder, Wiggie, whether you tell us all the truth. You never do talk much about yourself, do you? We know who you _are_, of course, and we’ve been friends for years, but you never tell us your troubles, and though you always say there’s nothing the matter with you that matters, I don’t think I quite believe it. You look so”--she laughed rather shakily, and put a comforting hand on his arm--“so dreadfully ‘gone before!’ Don’t you know how precious you are to us all, Wiggie dear? Let us have a chance of taking care of you if you really need it, won’t you?” With his own hands tightly clasped on the banister, he stood looking down into her eyes, and at her hair, tossed into a mesh of gold by the little watchman’s lamp at the foot of the stair, at the pleading mouth and the pearls at her throat, at the whole, terrible, beautiful want in his life that she represented, and an impulse came over him to tell her the truth, and see the mouth quiver, and the tears so near the surface brim over for his sorry plight. He had always taken care of _her_, thought for _her_, lived for _her_, but perhaps she had had help for him, too, all the time. If he broke now, completely and in utter thankfulness, would he find himself, if only for a little, within the comfort of her arms? The telephone rang off, and instantly, as if snatched by a cord, Dandy dropped her hand and turned, her lips opened to an unspoken question as Hamer came into the hall with a pleased expression on his face. He nodded to her as he advanced.