remainder
of the lagging darkness pacing softly to and fro; one face only before
his eyes, the one sure thing, the one thing unattainable in a world of
phantoms.

Herbert waited on in vain for his guest next morning, and after
wandering up and down the mossy lawn at the back of the house, went off
cheerfully at last alone for his dip. When he returned Lawford was in
his place at the breakfast-table. He sat on, moody and constrained,
until even Herbert's haphazard talk trickled low.

'I fancy my sister is nursing a headache,' he said at last, 'but she'll
be down soon. And I'm afraid from the looks of you, Lawford, your night
was not particularly restful.' He felt his way very heedfully. 'Perhaps
we walked you a little too far yesterday. We are so used to tramping
that--' Lawford kept thoughtful eyes fixed on the deprecating face.

'I see what it is, Herbert--you are humouring me again. I have
been wracking my brains in vain to remember what exactly DID happen
yesterday. I feel as if it was all sunk oceans deep in sleep. I get so
far--and then I'm done. It won't give up a hint. But you really mustn't
think I'm an invalid, or--or in my second childhood. The truth is,' he
added, 'it's only my FIRST, come back again. But now that I've got so
far, now that I'm really better, I--' He broke off rather vacantly, as
if afraid of his own confidence. 'I must be getting on,' he summed
up with an effort, 'and that's the solemn fact. I keep on forgetting
I'm--I'm a ratepayer!'

Herbert sat round in his chair. 'You see, Lawford, the very term is
little else than Double-Dutch to me. As a matter of fact Grisel sends
all my hush-money to the horrible people that do the cleaning up, as
it were. I can't catch their drift. Government to me is merely the
spectacle of the clever, or the specious, managing the dull. It deals
merely with the physical, and just the fringe of consciousness. I am not
joking. I think I follow you. All I mean is that the obligations--mainly
tepid, I take it--that are luring you back to the fold would be the
very ones that would scare me quickest off. The imagination, the appeal
faded: we're dead.'

Lawford opened his mouth; 'TEMPORARILY tepid,' he at last all but
coughed out.

'Oh yes, of course,' said Herbert intelligently. 'Only temporarily. It's
this beastly gregariousness that's the devil. The very thought of it
undoes me--with an absolute shock of sheepishness. I suddenly realise
my human nakedness: tha