elieve in God--I doubt very much whether there is any one who
really does believe, or understand what it means--but for any one even
to say so is the very worst crime conceivable: it is high treason. But
there is going to be no violence; it will all be quite quiet and
merciful. Why, you have always approved of Euthanasia, as we all do.
Well, it is that that will be used; and---"

Once more she made a little movement with her hand. The rest of her was
like an image.

"Is this any use?" she asked.

Oliver stood up. He could not bear the hardness of her voice.

"Mabel, my darling---"

For an instant her lips shook; then again she looked at him with eyes of
ice.

"I don't want that," she said. "It is of no use.. Then you did sign it?"

Oliver had a sense of miserable desperation as he looked back at her.
He would infinitely have preferred that she had stormed and wept.

"Mabel---" he cried again.

"Then you did sign it?"

"I did sign it," he said at last.

She turned and went towards the door. He sprang after her.

"Mabel, where are you going?"

Then, for the first time in her life, she lied to her husband frankly
and fully.

"I am going to rest a little," she said. "I shall see you presently at
supper."

He still hesitated, but she met his eyes, pale indeed, but so honest
that he fell back.

"Very well, my dear.... Mabel, try to understand."

* * * * *

He came down to supper half-an-hour later, primed with logic, and even
kindled with emotion. The argument seemed to him now so utterly
convincing; granted the premises that they both accepted and lived by,
the conclusion was simply inevitable.

He waited a minute or two, and at last went to the tube that
communicated with the servants' quarters.

"Where is Mrs. Brand?" he asked.

There was an instant's silence, and then the answer came:

"She left the house half-an-hour ago, sir. I thought you knew."

III

That same evening Mr. Francis was very busy in his office over the
details connected with the festival of Sustenance that was to be
celebrated on the first of July. It was the first time that the
particular ceremony had taken place, and he was anxious that it should
be as successful as its predecessors. There were a few differences
between this and the others, and it was necessary that the
_ceremoniarii_ should be fully instructed.

So, with his model before him--a miniature replica of the interior of
the Abbey, with tiny dummy fig