to her, "I'll come!"

"Come now!"

He nodded his head, forgetting that she could not see him, and she
called to him again, "You'll come now, won't you?"

"Yes," he replied. "I'll come at once!"

He put up the receiver and reached for his hat. "I wonder what she
wants," he thought, "perhaps she really does love me and my letter's
frightened her!" His spirits rose at the thought and he went jauntily to
the door and opened it, and as he did so, Ninian, pale and miserable,
panted up the steps.

"My God, Quinny!" he exclaimed, almost sobbing, "the _Gigantic's_ gone
down!"

"The what?"

"The _Gigantic's_ gone down! It's in the paper. Look, look!" He was
unbalanced by grief as he thrust the _Westminster Gazette_ and the
_Globe_ into Henry's hands.

"But, damn it, she can't have gone down," Henry said, "she's a Belfast
boat ... she can't have gone down!"

"She has, I tell you, and Tom Arthurs ... oh, my God, Quinny, he's gone
down too! The decentest chap on earth and ... and he's been drowned!"

Henry led him into the house. "I went out to get the evening papers to
see about Gilbert's play," he went on, "and that's what I saw. I saw her
at Southampton going off as proud as a queen ... and now she's at the
bottom of the Atlantic. And Tom waved his hand to me. He was going to
show me over her properly when he came back. Isn't it horrible, Quinny?
What's the sense of it ... what the hell's the sense of it?"

"She can't have gone down ..." Henry said, as if that would comfort
Ninian.

"She has, I tell you...."

Henry went to the sideboard and took out the whisky.

"Here, Ninian," he said, pouring out some of it, "drink that. You're
upset!..."

"No, I don't want any whisky. God damn it, what's the sense of a thing
like this! A man like Tom Arthurs!..."

There was a noise like the sound of a taxi-cab drawing up in front of
the house, and presently the bell rang, and then, after a moment or two,
the door opened, and Mrs. Graham came hurrying into the room.

"Ninian! Where's Ninian?" she said wildly to Henry.

"He's here, Mrs. Graham!"

She went to him and clutched him tightly to her. "Oh, my dear, my dear,"
she said.

"What is it, mother?" he asked, calming himself and looking at her.

"I telephoned to your office, but you weren't there, so I came here to
find you. I couldn't rest content till I'd seen you!"

"What is it, mother?"

"That ship, Ninian. If you'd been on it ... you wanted to go, and I said