Page 183 (1/1)

"What's the : I want a little air"

He had insisted that the library curtains should draw backward and forward on a rod, so that theynailed to a gilt cornice, and i-roo out into the icy night Theat May, seated beside his table, under his laetting the sense of other lives outside his own, other cities beyond New York, and a whole world beyond his world, cleared his brain and made it easier to breathe

After he had leaned out into the darkness for a few minutes he heard her say: "Newland! Do shut theYou'll catch your death"

He pulled the sash down and turned back "Catch ht it already I AM dead--I've been dead for months and months"

And suddenly the play of the word flashed up a wild suggestion What if it were SHE as dead! If she were going to die--to die soon--and leave hi there, in that war her dead, was so strange, so fascinating and over, that its enormity did not iiven hi Yes, Maypeople, healthy people like herself: she lanced up, and he saw by her widening eyes that there e in his own

"Newland! Are you ill?"

He shook his head and turned toward his arm-chair She bent over her work-frame, and as he passed he laid his hand on her hair "Poor May!" he said

"Poor? Why poor?" she echoed with a strained laugh

"Because I shall never be able to open a ithout worrying you," he rejoined, laughing also

For a moment she was silent; then she said very low, her head bowed over her work: "I shall never worry if you're happy"

"Ah, my dear; and I shall never be happy unless I can open the s!"

"In THIS weather?" she reh he buried his head in his book

Six or seven days passed Archer heard nothing from Madame Olenska, and became aware that her name would not be mentioned in his presence by any member of the family He did not try to see her; to do so while she was at old Catherine's guarded bedside would have been almost impossible In the uncertainty of the situation he let himself drift, conscious, sohts, of a resolve which had come to him when he had leaned out froth of that resolve n