I--_want_ you," he said in an odd, indistinct, hesitating voice....
"Things must be cleared up--matters concerning us--affairs----" he
muttered.

She closed her eyes a moment and rested both hands on the banisters as
though fatigued, then she looked down at him where he stood watching
her:

"If you had rather go without me--if it is better for you--less
troublesome----"

"I've told you," he said in a dull voice, "I want you. You must fit
yourself to go."

"You are so kind to me--so wonderful----"

He merely stared at her; she turned almost wearily to resume her
ascent.

"Dulcie!"

She had reached the landing above. She bent over, looking down at him
in the dusk.

"Did you understand?"

"I--yes, I think so."

"That I _want_ you?"

"Yes."

"It is true. I want you always. I'm just beginning to understand that
myself. Please don't ever forget what I say to you now, Dulcie; I want
you. I shall always want you. Always! As long as I live."

She leaned heavily on the newel-post above, looking down.

He could not see that her eyes were closed, that her lips moved in
voiceless answer. She was only a vague white shape there in the dusk
above him--a mystery which seemed to have been suddenly born out of
some poignant confusion of his own mind.

He saw her turn, fade into the darkness. And he stood there, not
moving, aware of the chaos within him, of shapeless questions being
evolved out of this profound disturbance--of an inner consciousness
groping with these questions--questions involving other questions and
menacing him with the necessity of decision.

After a while, too, he became conscious of his own voice sounding
there in the darkness:

"I am very near to love.... I have been close to it.... It would be
very easy to fall in love to-night.... But I am wondering--about
to-morrow.... And afterward.... But I have been very near--very near
to love, to-night...."

The front doorbell rang through the darkness.

XXV

STARLIGHT

When Barres opened the front door he saw Renoux standing there in the
shadow of the porch, silhouetted against the starlight. They exchanged
a silent grip; Renoux stepped inside; Barres closed the front door.

"Shall I light up?" he asked in a low voice.

"No. There are complications. I've been followed, I think. Take me
somewhere near a window which commands the driveway out there. I'd
like to keep my eye on it while we are talking."

"Come on," said Barres, under