shan't think of such a
thing! Nick! A heaven-sent chance like that! Oh, it wouldn't be fair.
I'm sure she would say so. You must--you must tell her!"

Nick's hand clenched upon the arm of his chair. He kept his eyes shut.
"You see, dear," he said, "there's the kiddie too. I'm an unnatural
beast. I'd actually forgotten him for the moment. One-eyed of me, wasn't
it?"

"Nick--darling!" Suddenly Olga was kneeling beside his chair; she put
her arms about his neck. "You shan't call yourself anything so horrid!"
she said. "Dad and I will take care of little Reggie. You know you can
trust him to me, Nick. I'll watch over him day and night."

"Bless your heart!" said Nick. He lodged his head against her shoulder
after the fashion she most loved. "You're a sweet little pal," he said.
"But I doubt if Muriel would consent to go so far away from him, and I'm
a selfish hound myself to contemplate such a thing. No; don't contradict
me! It's rude. I'm that, and several other things besides. I'd no idea I
was so much in the grip of the East. It's a curious thing. One feels it
in the blood. It's six years--more--since I climbed on to the shelf, and
I've been quite smug and self-satisfied most of the time. There's been a
twinge of regret every now and then, but nothing I couldn't whistle
away. But now--" his words quickened; he spoke them whimsically, yet
passionately, in her ear--"between you and me, I'd give an eye, an ear,
or a leg--anything I possess in duplicate--to come off the shelf, and
have one more fling. I'm stiff! I'm stiff! And, ye gods, I'm only
four-and-thirty! I always thought I'd go till sixty at least. I entered
Parliament just to keep going; but that's only a steady progress
downhill--a sort of frog's march in which you kick and are kicked, but
don't do much besides. I'm a fighter, kiddie. I wasn't made to ornament
the shelf. I'm not a hero; only an ordinary, restless, discontented
mortal. They told me this afternoon that it was time I did something,
that I was dropping out, that I should ossify if I sat still much
longer. (A good term that; worthy of our friend Max!) And, by Heaven,
they're right! But how can I help it? I know in my heart of hearts that
it would be sheer brutality to spring this on Muriel now."

He ceased to speak, and there fell a silence. Olga's arms clasped him
very tightly. Her cheek pressed his forehead. It was not often that Nick
opened his heart to her thus. Only twice before had it ever happ