m we get look as if they didn't
have a square meal outside from one year's end to the other. If you'll
just wait a minute, miss, I'll fetch the man down to you."

In a bare room with distempered walls, and bars to a window out of which
she could see nothing but a high brick wall, Nedda waited. So rapid is
the adjustment of the human mind, so quick the blunting of human
sensation, that she had already not quite the passion of pitiful feeling
which had stormed her standing under that archway. A kind of numbness
gripped her nerves. There were wooden forms in this room, and a
blackboard, on which two rows of figures had been set one beneath the
other, but not yet added up.

The silence at first was almost deathly. Then it was broken by a sound
as of a heavy door banged, and the shuffling tramp of marching
men--louder, louder, softer--a word of command--still softer, and it died
away. Dead silence again! Nedda pressed her hands to her breast. Twice
she added up those figures on the blackboard; each time the number was
the same. Ah, there was a fly--two flies! How nice they looked, moving,
moving, chasing each other in the air. Did flies get into the cells?
Perhaps not even a fly came there--nothing more living than walls and
wood! Nothing living except what was inside oneself! How dreadful! Not
even a clock ticking, not even a bird's song! Silent, unliving, worse
than in this room! Something pressed against her leg. She started
violently and looked down. A little cat! Oh, what a blessed thing! A
little sandy, ugly cat! It must have crept in through the door. She was
not locked in, then, anyway! Thus far had nerves carried her already!
Scrattling the little cat's furry pate, she pulled herself together. She
would not tremble and be nervous. It was disloyal to Derek and to her
purpose, which was to bring comfort to poor Tryst. Then the door was
pushed open, and the warder said:

"A quarter of an hour, miss. I'll be just outside."

She saw a big man with unshaven cheeks come in, and stretched out her
hand.

"I am Mr. Derek's cousin, going to be married to him. He's been ill, but
he's getting well again now. We knew you'd like to hear." And she
thought: 'Oh! What a tragic face! I can't bear to look at his eyes!'

He took her hand, said, "Thank you, miss," and stood as still as ever.

"Please come and sit down, and we can talk."

Tryst moved to a form and took his seat thereon, with his hands b