ere Rodney might have been, where Milly
was. Milly rose from the corner where she sat averted.

"Agatha," she said, "I had to come."

Agatha kissed the white, suppliant face that Milly lifted.

"I thought," she said, "you'd gone--yesterday."

"We couldn't go. He--he's ill again."

"Ill?"

"Yes. Didn't you see the blinds down as you passed?"

"I thought it was because you'd gone."

"It's because that _thing_'s come back again."

"When did it come, Milly?"

"It's been coming for three days."

Agatha drew in her breath with a pang. It was just three days since she
began to let him go.

Milly went on. "And now he won't come out of the house. He says he's
being hunted. He's afraid of being seen, being found. He's in there--in
that room. He made me lock him in."

They stared at each other and at the horror that their faces took and
gave back each to each.

"Oh, Aggy----" Milly cried it out in her anguish. "You _will_ help him?"

"I can't." Agatha heard her voice go dry in her throat.

"You _can't_?"

Agatha shook her head.

"You mean you haven't, then?"

"I haven't. I couldn't."

"But you told me--you told me you were giving yourself up to it. You
said that was why you couldn't see us."

"It _was_ why. Do sit down, Milly."

They sat down, still staring at each other. Agatha faced the window, so
that the light ravaged her.

Milly went on. "That was why I left you alone. I thought you were going
on. You said you wouldn't let him go; you promised me you'd keep on ..."

"I did keep on, till ..."

But Milly had only paused to hold down a sob. Her voice broke out again,
clear, harsh, accusing.

"What were you doing all that time?"

"Of course," said Agatha, "you're bound to think I let you down."

"What am I to think?"

"Milly--I asked you not to think it was me."

"Of course I knew it was the Power, not you. But you had hold of it. You
did something. Something that other people can't do. You did it for one
night, and that night he was well. You kept on for six weeks and he was
well all that time. You leave off for three days--I know when you left
off--and he's ill again. And then you tell me that it isn't you. It _is_
you; and if it's you you can't give him up. You can't stand by, Aggy,
and refuse to help him. You know what it was. How can you bear to let
him suffer? How can you?"

"I can because I must."

"And why must you?"

Milly raised her head more in defiance than in supplication.