Picq staggered, from his colleague's arms, up the crazy staircase to the wings--and straightened his back to be dashing. He entered upon the scene in time. And he delivered his lines, and struck his attitudes, and paused, by force of habit, when a round of applause was due. At the climax of a tirade, when he took a step back and mechanically raised his gaze to the first circle, nobody would have supposed that, with his mind's eye he looked, through the tier of faces, on the mangled body of his son. The curtain fell again. The play was over, and he tottered back to the room. The bottle of champagne on the dressing-table, among the litter of make-up, was the first thing he noticed. "My wife!" gasped Picq, and broke down. He was shaken by sobs. Some of the players had followed. Sympathy surrounded him. "I see her face when I tell her--I see her face! How to keep it from her? To-night she mustn't know--it would kill her; but to keep it from her for weeks till she has recovered--is it possible?" "Poor chap! Be brave. Time----" They mumbled useless words. "To have to pretend to her every time I go, for weeks, perhaps months! And then, when she is so happy at being well again, to have to strike her down with the blow! Ah, I know I am not the only father to lose his son--she is not the only mother, but----" "You don't think it might be best to break it to her now?" someone suggested. He shook his head impatiently, the throbbing head from which the jeune premier's curls were not removed yet. "It would be murder. I am warned she is to avoid excitement. And this evening, when she tries to be bright, to go in and say, 'He is killed'! I mustn't tell her till she is well--quite, quite well. I must keep her cheerful; I must be in good spirits, but--I haven't the courage to go home." It was the truth: he had not the courage to go home. "She is waiting for me--I must make haste to change," he faltered more than once; but even when he had "changed" at last, his soul cowered before the thought of the ordeal, and he lingered nerveless in the chair.