l looked at him for a moment in silence.

"No, it is unsaid," he replied.

Hermann looked round as the clock on the chimney-piece chimed.

"I must be going," he said, "I needn't say anything to you about Sylvia,
because all I could say is in your heart already. Well, we've met in
this jolly world, Mike, and we've been great friends. Neither you nor I
could find a greater friend than we've been to each other. I bless God
for this last year. It's been the happiest in my life. Now what else is
there? Your music: don't ever be lazy about your music. It's worth while
taking all the pains you can about it. Lord! do you remember the evening
when I first tried your Variations? . . . Let me play the last one now.
I want something jubilant. Let's see, how does it go?"

He held his hands, those long, slim-fingered hands, poised for a moment
above the keys, then plunged into the glorious riot of the full chords
and scales, till the room rang with it. The last chord he held for a
moment, and then sprang up.

"Ah, that's good," he said. "And now I'm going to say good-bye, and go
without looking round."

"But might I see you off this afternoon?" asked Michael.

"No, please don't. Station partings are fussy and disagreeable. I want
to say good-bye to you here in your quiet room, just as I shall say
goodbye to Sylvia at home. Ah, Mike, yes, both hands and smiling. May
God give us other meetings and talks and companionship and years of
love, my best of friends. Good-bye."

Then, as he had said, he walked to the door without looking round, and
next moment it had closed behind him.

Throughout the next week the tension of the situation grew ever greater,
strained towards the snapping-point, while the little cloud, the man's
hand, which had arisen above the eastern horizon grew and overspread the
heavens in a pall that became ever more black and threatening. For a few
days yet it seemed that perhaps even now the cataclysm might be averted,
but gradually, in spite of all the efforts of diplomacy to loosen the
knot, it became clear that the ends of the cord were held in hands that
did not mean to release their hold till it was pulled tight. Servia
yielded to such demands as it was possible for her to grant as an
independent State; but the inflexible fingers never abated one jot
of their strangling pressure. She appealed to Russia, and Russia's
remonstrance fell on deaf ears, or, rather, on ears that had determined
not to hear. Fro