like
that!"

James was pleased to have seen the Larchers. It satisfied and relieved
him to know that human sorrow was not beyond human endurance: as the
greatest of their gifts, the gods have vouchsafed to man a happy
forgetfulness.

In six months the boy's family were able to give parties, to laugh and
jest as if they had suffered no loss at all; and the thought of this
cleared his way a little. If the worst came to the worst--and that
desperate step of which he had spoken seemed his only refuge--he could
take it with less apprehension. Pain to those he loved was inevitable,
but it would not last very long; and his death would trouble them far
less than his dishonour.

Time was pressing, and James still hesitated, hoping distractedly for
some unforeseen occurrence that would at least delay the marriage. The
House of Death was dark and terrible, and he could not walk rashly to
its dreadful gates: something would surely happen! He wanted time to
think--time to see whether there was really no escape. How horrible it
was that one could know nothing for certain! He was torn and rent by his
indecision.

Major Forsyth had been put off by several duchesses, and was driven to
spend a few economical weeks at Little Primpton; he announced that since
Jamie's wedding was so near he would stay till it was over. Finding also
that his nephew had not thought of a best man, he offered himself; he
had acted as such many times--at the most genteel functions; and with a
pleasant confusion of metaphor, assured James that he knew the ropes
right down to the ground.

"Three weeks to-day, my boy!" he said heartily to James one morning, on
coming down to breakfast.

"Is it?" replied James.

"Getting excited?"

"Wildly!"

"Upon my word, Jamie, you're the coolest lover I've ever seen. Why, I've
hardly known how to keep in some of the fellows I've been best man to."

"I'm feeling a bit seedy to-day, Uncle William."

James thanked his stars that ill-health was deemed sufficient excuse for
all his moodiness. Mary spared him the rounds among her sick and needy,
whom, notwithstanding the approaching event, she would on no account
neglect. She told Uncle William he was not to worry her lover, but leave
him quietly with his books; and no one interfered when he took long,
solitary walks in the country. Jamie's reading now was a pretence; his
brain was too confused, he was too harassed and uncertain to understand
a word; and he spent his