down utterly in a second fit of violent weeping; and a second time I took her in my arms, and stood trying in my clumsy way to comfort her, as though she were a little child. A lamp was burning in the library, and I recognized the armchair which Rattray had drawn thence for me on the night of our dinner - the very night before! I led Eva back into the room, and I closed both doors. I supported my poor girl to the chair, and once more I knelt before her and took her hands in mine. My great hour was
“It’s the faces and the shrieks of the women; it’s the cursing and the fighting of the men; it’s boat-loads struggling in an oily sea; it’s husbands and wives jumping overboard together; it’s men turned into devils, it’s hell-fire afloat - “
“Stop! stop! ” he whispered, hoarse as a crow. I was sitting