there would be some fine, savage struggling when that crisis
struck into their midst. Dorchester smiled grimly, and then, in spite of
herself, sighed a little.

They were all growing old together.

II

At five o'clock came Dr. Christopher, and Dorchester moved into the
other room and left the two together. With his large limbs and cheerful
smile he made the Duchess seem slighter and more fragile than ever, and
she herself felt always with his coming some addition of warmth and
strength; each visit, so she might have expressed it, gave her life for
at least another tiny span.

That he, knowing so much of the follies and catastrophes of life, should
yet be an optimist, would have proved him in her opinion a fool had she
not known, by constant proof, that he was anything but that. "Well, one
day he will discover his mistake," she would say, and yet, perversely,
would cling to him for the sake of this very illusion. He helped her
courage, he helped her battle with her pain, he gave her, sometimes,
some shadowy sense of shame for her passions and rebellions, but, more
than all this, he yielded her a reassurance that life, precious,
adorable, wonderful life, was yet for a little time to be hers.

He knew well enough the influence that he possessed, and when, as on
this afternoon, he felt it his duty to avail himself of it, he could not
pretend that he faced his task with any exultation.

That he should rouse her fury, as he had one or twice already roused it,
meant humiliation for him as well as for herself, and afterwards
embarrassment for them both as they saw those scenes in retrospect.

She glanced up at him carefully as he came in and knew him well enough
to realize that there was something that he must say to her. There had
been other such occasions, she remembered them all. Sometimes she
herself had been the subject of them, something that was injuring her
health, some indulgence that he could not allow her. Sometimes the
battle had been about others; she had fought him and on occasions it had
seemed that their relationship was broken once and for all, that nothing
could cover the words that had been spoken--but always through
everything she had admired his courage.

The way had always been to stand up to her.

For a little time they talked about her health, and then there fell a
pause. She, leaning back in her chair with her thin, sharp hands on her
lap, watched him grimly as he sat on the other side of t