man soul would never fail him at his need. And now
this last tender bond was to be broken with a rough, incredible
suddenness. The woman he loved with passion would never be his; for not
even now, fresh from contact with his sister's dying hope, could he raise
himself to any flattering vision of the future; and the woman he loved,
with that intimate tenacity of affection which is the poetry of kinship,
was to be taken from him by this cruel wastefulness of premature death.
Could any man be more alone than he would be? And then suddenly a
consciousness fell upon him which made him ashamed. In the neighbouring
room his ear was caught now and then by an almost imperceptible, murmur
of voices. What was his loss, his agony, compared to theirs?

When he softly returned into the room he found Marie lying as though
asleep upon, her husband's arm. It seemed to him that since he had left
her there had been a change. The face was more drawn, the look of
exhaustion more defined. Paul sat beside her, his eyes riveted upon her.
He scarcely seemed to notice his brother-in-law's entrance; it was as
though he were rapidly losing consciousness of every fact but one; and
never had Kendal seen any countenance so grief-stricken, so pinched with
longing. But Marie heard the familiar step. She made a faint movement
with her hand towards him, and he resumed his old place, his head bowed
upon the bed. And so they sat through the morning, hardly moving,
interchanging at long intervals a few words--those sad sacred words which
well from the heart in the supreme moments of existence--words which, in
the case of such natures as Marie de Chateauvieux, represent the intimate
truths and fundamental ideas of the life that has gone before. There was
nothing to hide, nothing to regret. A few kindly messages, a few womanly
commissions, and every now and then a few words to her husband, as simple
as the rest, but pregnant with the deepest thoughts and touching the
vastest problems of humanity,--this was all. Marie was dying as she had
lived--bravely, tenderly, simply.

Presently they roused her to take some nourishment, which she swallowed
with difficulty. It gave her a momentary strength. Kendal heard himself
called, and looked up. She had opened the hand lying on the bed, and he
saw in it a small miniature case, which she moved towards him.

'Take it,' she said--oh, how faintly!--'to her. It is the only memento I
can think of. She has been ill, Eustace: