arrived."
"That was queer and most romantic, Helga, yet hardly in the same category."
"A future event was foreshadowed. Then just a year before Ingrid was born, Dick again oddly enough had occasion to travel to Scotland, but for the whole day beforehand, utterly unlike himself, fidgeted and could settle to nothing. An irrational gloom and sense of dread coloured every minute for him. He and I weren't in the habit of keeping things from each other, and when I challenged him at the time, he confessed it; so what I am now telling you is the literal fact. That same night again, in bed, he saw the identical phantom woman of his previous vision; and, as then, she filled the entire doorway of his room, refusing to let him pass out. Only on this occasion she wasn't smiling, but scowling. We debated in the morning whether he ought to take the journey north, and happily I persuaded him in the end to put it off. Less than twelve hours later the papers reported an appalling train crash in Yorkshire. It was the train he was to have gone by, Hugh. … Yet before his pitiful hunting fall, that killed him, he had no premonition whatsoever."
"We can't apply our little staff of reason to these transactions."
"I have tried to, by taking a very simple view; and still it explains nothing. Apparently Ingrid's existence was required; but once she had appeared in the world, fate had no further use for poor Dick, or interest in him, so that he was at liberty to go to destruction as soon and as inconspicuously as he pleased! That at least is the effect."
"It's beyond us."
Helga allowed her personal memories to subside; then asked:
"How long have you had this feeling, Hugh?"
"It has been swelling for some time. I may have recognised it as far back as Tibet, a couple of months ago."
"Mightn't it be just hypochondria?"
"I think not. I have the very definite flavour of death in my mouth. I seem not to be able to see an inch of the future, but there's a black curtain across my life."
"You are otherwise well?"
"Yes, I am very well. Only, this thing is to happen. … And since it would be grievous if it should happen down here, in the midst of you all, I'll now be off again; having done what I came to do. Perhaps to-morrow—the day after this one now beginning—would suit?"
"No, you can't hurry away like that, leaving me in suspense, Hugh. Stay on for a little. We'll talk again. … We must go to bed now; it's getting late."
She stood up, and looked across to him kindly and softly.
"It is a thousand pities you were never married, my dear! So many of these bogeys would be impossible with a wife."
"I was once in love with you, Helga."
"That must have been a long, long time ago. Now I am nearly an old woman."
"Your eyes could never grow old. They always seem to me to be looking out of your soul."
"My soul is old too. I am terribly old altogether. But I have Ingrid, and you haven't a son. I don't know that I regret very much of my life, except its tragedies. Can you say as much, my dear?"
"How do you keep your tranquillity? You must have a great peace inside you."
"It comes of a long subordination of one's will to the little duties of the day."
"Then that is what I have missed," said Drapier. "I've done almost everything I wanted to in the world, but, I fancy, very little that I haven't wanted to. It's easier for a woman, however."
"We haven't so much strength as you, to get in the way of a surrender, but otherwise nothing is easy for women, Hugh. We have no golden mountains before us, we feel when we ought to be thinking, we are all nerves, and our bodies are usually below par. We have to live up to traditions framed in the barbarous ages. You had better not die, my dear, or you may be born again a woman."
"The language of all of you is alike, Helga; but I can't believe that you would be a man if you could."
She no longer replied, but instead bent swiftly down to him as he continued sitting; and kissed his forehead. Then she stood
"That was queer and most romantic, Helga, yet hardly in the same category."
"A future event was foreshadowed. Then just a year before Ingrid was born, Dick again oddly enough had occasion to travel to Scotland, but for the whole day beforehand, utterly unlike himself, fidgeted and could settle to nothing. An irrational gloom and sense of dread coloured every minute for him. He and I weren't in the habit of keeping things from each other, and when I challenged him at the time, he confessed it; so what I am now telling you is the literal fact. That same night again, in bed, he saw the identical phantom woman of his previous vision; and, as then, she filled the entire doorway of his room, refusing to let him pass out. Only on this occasion she wasn't smiling, but scowling. We debated in the morning whether he ought to take the journey north, and happily I persuaded him in the end to put it off. Less than twelve hours later the papers reported an appalling train crash in Yorkshire. It was the train he was to have gone by, Hugh. … Yet before his pitiful hunting fall, that killed him, he had no premonition whatsoever."
"We can't apply our little staff of reason to these transactions."
"I have tried to, by taking a very simple view; and still it explains nothing. Apparently Ingrid's existence was required; but once she had appeared in the world, fate had no further use for poor Dick, or interest in him, so that he was at liberty to go to destruction as soon and as inconspicuously as he pleased! That at least is the effect."
"It's beyond us."
Helga allowed her personal memories to subside; then asked:
"How long have you had this feeling, Hugh?"
"It has been swelling for some time. I may have recognised it as far back as Tibet, a couple of months ago."
"Mightn't it be just hypochondria?"
"I think not. I have the very definite flavour of death in my mouth. I seem not to be able to see an inch of the future, but there's a black curtain across my life."
"You are otherwise well?"
"Yes, I am very well. Only, this thing is to happen. … And since it would be grievous if it should happen down here, in the midst of you all, I'll now be off again; having done what I came to do. Perhaps to-morrow—the day after this one now beginning—would suit?"
"No, you can't hurry away like that, leaving me in suspense, Hugh. Stay on for a little. We'll talk again. … We must go to bed now; it's getting late."
She stood up, and looked across to him kindly and softly.
"It is a thousand pities you were never married, my dear! So many of these bogeys would be impossible with a wife."
"I was once in love with you, Helga."
"That must have been a long, long time ago. Now I am nearly an old woman."
"Your eyes could never grow old. They always seem to me to be looking out of your soul."
"My soul is old too. I am terribly old altogether. But I have Ingrid, and you haven't a son. I don't know that I regret very much of my life, except its tragedies. Can you say as much, my dear?"
"How do you keep your tranquillity? You must have a great peace inside you."
"It comes of a long subordination of one's will to the little duties of the day."
"Then that is what I have missed," said Drapier. "I've done almost everything I wanted to in the world, but, I fancy, very little that I haven't wanted to. It's easier for a woman, however."
"We haven't so much strength as you, to get in the way of a surrender, but otherwise nothing is easy for women, Hugh. We have no golden mountains before us, we feel when we ought to be thinking, we are all nerves, and our bodies are usually below par. We have to live up to traditions framed in the barbarous ages. You had better not die, my dear, or you may be born again a woman."
"The language of all of you is alike, Helga; but I can't believe that you would be a man if you could."
She no longer replied, but instead bent swiftly down to him as he continued sitting; and kissed his forehead. Then she stood
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