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I had seldom seen Marlow so vehement, so pessimistic, so earnestly

cynical before I cut his declaiven to his question "Did the poor girl ades of close writing--that sort of

thing?"

Marlow shook his head

"She did not tell me I accepted her silence, as a kind of answer and

remarked that it would have been better if she had sie "Why didn't you do it?" I asked point-

blank

She said: "I airl" She looked up at ly: "And you know it And you knohy"

I must remark that she see at the quarry Alry

and despairing girl with quivering lips and resentful glances

"I thought it was very sensible of you to get away fro of that old expression

"That's not what Iof the kind I was concerned for that vile little beast of a

dog No! It was the idea of--of doing aithI airl"

"Oh!" I retorted airily "That little dog He isn't really a bad little

dog" But she lowered her eyelids and went on: "I was so miserable that I could think only of myself This was iven it up--not then"

Marlow changed his tone

"I don't know y of self-destruction It's a sort of

subject one has few opportunities to study closely I knew aa cigar confessed to