so soon. How can we manage about getting
away?"

"Getting away--where--in Heaven's name?" Honor rose abruptly. She
began to feel as though she were moving in a nightmare.

"Oh, anywhere, away from here. I can't--I won't see him, when he is
'badly cut about' and--half blind. I thought--if you would take me to
Murree--Mrs Olliver would be quite glad to look after him. And when he
is better, he could come up too. But if--if he is really going to
be--blind----"

She closed her eyes and shuddered. No flicker of pity stirred in
Honor's heart. It needed all her force of will to control her temper,
even for a few minutes longer. But a grim curiosity urged her to
discover how far it was possible to travel along such incredible lines
of thought and feeling.

"Well, what then?" she demanded coldly.

"Then--I know I could--never come back to him--never!" Theo's wife
answered slowly, without raising her eyes, or the look in Honor's face
would surely have frozen the words on her lips. "To feel that he was
always in the dark would frighten me out of my life. And he would
never be left alone, I know. There are so many--others."

But Honor could bear no more. Bending down, she caught hold of
Evelyn's shoulders and fairly shook her, as though she would shake her
back to life and human feeling. Her blue eyes blazed with indignation.

"How _dare_ you talk like that!" she said in a low note of
concentrated wrath. "How dare you think such despicable thoughts! Of
course there are others who would give their lives to save him from a
minute's pain; and you would let them take your place,--yours? And you
can actually expect that _I_--of all people--will back you up in your
desertion of him? No indeed! If you go, you go alone; and I shall
never have a word to say to you again. I may be speaking hotly,
because I am furiously angry. But I mean every word I say; and my
actions will prove it. What's more, _I will not let you go_. You
_shall_ stand by him, however frightened you may be. You talk
of--loving him, and you would treat him as I should be ashamed to
treat a dog! Evelyn! Evelyn!"--her voice broke suddenly, and tears
started to her eyes,--"tell me you did not mean what you said; or I
don't know how I am to go on helping you at all!"

There was more of command than of entreaty in the last words, and
Evelyn looked up at the transfigured beauty of her face with a slow
shivering sigh.

"You are very wonderful, and very--terrible, Hon