; she
understood that now. It was necessary first to collect forces, to
concentrate energies, to subdue the imagination: after that almost
anything could be borne.

So she stood here now, without even the thought of flight, not
arguing, not reassuring herself, not analyzing anything; but just
gathering strength, screwing the will tight, facing things.

And there was yet another psychological fact that astonished her,
though she was only conscious of it in a parenthetical kind of way,
and that was the strength of her feeling for Laurie himself. It seemed
to her curious, when she considered it, how the horror of that which
lay over the boy seemed, like death itself, to throw out as on a clear
background the best of himself. His figure appeared to her memory as
wholly good and sweet; the shadows on his character seemed absorbed in
the darkness that lay over him; and towards this figure she
experienced a sense of protective love and energy that astonished
her. She desired with all her power to seize and rescue him.

Then she drew a long steady breath, thrust out her strong white hand
to see if the fingers trembled; went down the stairs, and, without
knocking, opened the smoking-room door and went straight in, closing
it behind her. There was a screen to be passed round.

She passed round it.

And he sat there on the couch looking at her.

II

For the first instant she remained there standing motionless; it was
like a declaration of war. In one or two of her fragmentary rehearsals
upstairs she had supposed she would say something conventional to
begin with. But the reality struck conventionality clean out of the
realm of the possible. Her silent pause there was as significant as
the crouch of a hound; and she perceived that it was recognized to be
so by the other that was there. There was in him that quick, silent
alertness she had expected: half defiant, half timid, as of a fierce
beast that expects a blow.

Then she came a step forward and sideways to a chair, sat down in it
with a swift, almost menacing motion, and remained there still
looking.

This is what she saw:

There was the familiar background, the dark paneled wall, the
engraving, and the shelf of books convenient to the hand; the fire was
on her right, and the couch opposite. Upon the couch sat the figure of
the boy she knew so well.

He was in the same suit in which he had traveled; he had not even
changed his shoes; they were splashed a littl