he put out her hand and took his playfully. "You've put in three weeks
at this sort of thing, haven't you? Well, it may never be to your glory
in this world, perhaps, but it's been the mercy of heaven to me, and it
ought to square accounts for a much worse life than yours will ever be."

Everett knelt beside her, saying, brokenly: "I stayed because I wanted
to be with you, that's all. I have never cared about other women since I
met you in New York when I was a lad. You are a part of my destiny, and
I could not leave you if I would."

She put her hands on his shoulders and shook her head. "No, no; don't
tell me that. I have seen enough of tragedy, God knows. Don't show me
any more just as the curtain is going down. No, no, it was only a boy's
fancy, and your divine pity and my utter pitiableness have recalled it
for a moment. One does not love the dying, dear friend. If some fancy of
that sort had been left over from boyhood, this would rid you of it,
and that were well. Now go, and you will come again tomorrow, as long as
there are tomorrows, will you not?" She took his hand with a smile that
lifted the mask from her soul, that was both courage and despair, and
full of infinite loyalty and tenderness, as she said softly:

For ever and for ever, farewell, Cassius;
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;
If not, why then, this parting was well made.

The courage in her eyes was like the clear light of a star to him as he
went out.

On the night of Adriance Hilgarde's opening concert in Paris Everett sat
by the bed in the ranch house in Wyoming, watching over the last battle
that we have with the flesh before we are done with it and free of it
forever. At times it seemed that the serene soul of her must have left
already and found some refuge from the storm, and only the tenacious
animal life were left to do battle with death. She labored under a
delusion at once pitiful and merciful, thinking that she was in the
Pullman on her way to New York, going back to her life and her work.
When she aroused from her stupor it was only to ask the porter to waken
her half an hour out of Jersey City, or to remonstrate with him about
the delays and the roughness of the road. At midnight Everett and the
nurse were left alone with her. Poor Charley Gaylord had lain down on a
couch outside the door. Everett sat looking at the sputtering night lamp
until it made his eyes ache. His head dropped forward on the foot of th