g to write a letter to my dear old John, whom I've treated
shamefully for a week, only sending him a scrawl on half a page. Now, I
want you to go to church, or else for a walk. I can tell you what the
doctor says when you come back."

May said neither "Yes" nor "No." She laughed a little and went out of
the room.

In the breakfast-room the Warden was already there. They greeted each
other and sat down together, and talked strict commonplaces till the
meal was over. He did not ask May what she was going to do, neither did
she ask him any questions. They both were following a line of action
that they thought was the right one. Neither intended meeting the other
unless circumstances compelled the meeting; circumstances like
breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was clear to both of them that, except
on these occasions, they had no business with each other. The Warden was
clear about it because he was a man still ashamed.

May was clear that she had no business to see the Warden except when
necessity occasioned it, because each moment made her more unfaithful to
the memory of the dead, to the memory of the dead man who could no
longer claim her, who had given away his all at the call of duty and who
had no power to hold her now. So she, too, being honourably proud, felt
ashamed in the presence of the Warden.

All that morning was wasted. The doctor did not come, and May spent the
time waiting for him. Lady Dashwood sat up in bed and wrote an
apparently interminable letter to her husband. Whenever May appeared she
said: "Go away, May!" and then she looked long and wistfully at her
niece.

Two or three men came to lunch and went into the library afterwards with
the Warden, and May went to her Aunt Lena's room.

"The doctor won't come now till after three, May, so you must go out, or
you will really grieve me," said Lady Dashwood. "Jim will take you out.
He came in just after you left me before lunch, and I told him you would
go out."

"You are supposed to be resting," said May, "and I can't have you making
arrangements, dear Aunt Lena. I shall do exactly what I please, and
shall not even tell you what I please to do. I do believe," she added,
as she shook up the pillows, "that in the next world, dear, you will
want to make plans for God, and that will get you into serious trouble."

Lady Dashwood sighed deeply. "Oh dear, oh dear," she said, "I suppose I
must go on pretending I'm ill."

May shook her head at her and pulle