Part 19

It was a strange proposal, and she began to defend herself from his imputations, stating her maladies, marshalling her symptoms of decay in an imposing procession.

But it was no good. He had taken her unawares and got the start of her. She felt it, and his determined weakness obtained a power over her which she could never afterwards explain.

His influenza triumphed, for she forgot her resolution.

A wave of morbid pity for him swept over the woman in her. If he was disorganised now, what would be his condition if she refused him?

"Have I the right," she asked herself, "to devote a fellow-creature to everlasting misery?"

Her influenza told her plainly that she had not.

* * * * *

People say that the marriage will really come off.

Jack Burnham announced it everywhere before Mrs Lorton got thoroughly well, and Mrs Lorton told everybody while Jack Burnham was still what his friends called "awfully dicky."

One can but hope that their married life will be passed on the same side of the shelter. If he persists in facing the sea, and she in staring at the villas--well, they will live most of Ibsen's plays!

But at least they will be modern.

And so the tee-to-tum, thought of pathetically by Burnham on a memorable occasion, spins round, and the sea and the villas are the two aspects of life.

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Inconsistent hyphenation has been retained.

Duplicate title headings at the beginning of the book and before each story have been removed.

The following corrections were made to the text:

p. 267: missing period added (danced merrily.)

p. 325: single close quote to double close quote ("I hope you will not be bored,")

p. 328: healthly to healthy (fresh and healthy interest)

p. 331: be to he ("A little more restrained," he said.)

p. 349: paragraph break removed after comma (and continued, "I doubt if any one)