n; but,
though I don't wish to think hardly of anyone, I cannot believe Captain
Fort is that.

"I shall come down to you before I start, which may be in quite a short
time now. My dear love to you and Gracie, and best wishes to George.

"Your ever loving father, "EDWARD PIERSON

Across this letter lying on her knees, Noel gazed at the spidery movement
on the wall. Was it acquiescence that the old lady knitted, or was it
resistance--a challenge to death itself, a challenge dancing to the tune
of the needles like the grey ghost of human resistance to Fate! She
wouldn't give in, this oldest lady in the world, she meant to knit till
she fell into the grave. And so Leila had gone! It hurt her to know
that; and yet it pleased her. Acquiescence--resistance! Why did Daddy
always want to choose the way she should go? So gentle he was, yet he
always wanted to! And why did he always make her feel that she must go
the other way? The sunlight ceased to stream in, the old lady's shadow
faded off the wall, but the needles still sang their little tune. And
the girl said:

"Do you enjoy knitting, Mrs. Adam?"

The old lady looked at her above the spectacles.

"Enjoy, my dear? It passes the time."

"But do you want the time to pass?"

There was no answer for a moment, and Noel thought: 'How dreadful of me
to have said that!'

"Eh?" said the old lady.

"I said: Isn't it very tiring?"

"Not when I don't think about it, my dear."

"What do you think about?"

The old lady cackled gently.

"Oh--well!" she said.

And Noel thought: 'It must be dreadful to grow old, and pass the time!'

She took up her father's letter, and bent it meditatively against her
chin. He wanted her to pass the time--not to live, not to enjoy! To
pass the time. What else had he been doing himself, all these years,
ever since she could remember, ever since her mother died, but just
passing the time? Passing the time because he did not believe in this
life; not living at all, just preparing for the life he did believe in.
Denying himself everything that was exciting and nice, so that when he
died he might pass pure and saintly to his other world. He could not
believe Captain Fort a good man, because he had not passed the time, and
resisted Leila; and Leila was gone! And now it was a sin for him to love
someone else; he must pass the time again. 'Daddy doesn't believe in
life,' she thought; 'it's monsieur's picture. Daddy's a saint;