Page:Adams - A Child of the Age.djvu/136

124 !… I have no fear for thee—in the end. Thou wilt do it in the end. Keep a brave heart. God is not so far from thee.…' His lips moved after that, but I heard no sound that came from them. Then felt the pressure of his hands moving me aside: caught the door handle: turned and opened the door, and he went out.

I stood watching him. Mr. Starkie was at the top of the stairs. He offered Mr. Brooke his arm, who half-absently took it; then started, looked at him, and smiled. They went down together slowly.

Mr. Starkie was to go on to Brindisi next day. I told him that I would not leave Paris until I had heard decisive news of Mr. Brooke. I had still £15 left from my £25, and had scarcely spent anything, Mr. Brooke having insisted on paying all my expenses of outfit, etc.

Mr. Starkie told me of a 'pension' in the Avenue de Fontenoi. I went there on the same evening that Mr. Brooke went to the hospital. The last thing Mr. Starkie said to me (we were sitting in the courtyard of the hotel: I was about to leave him for the 'pension'), was that he had very little doubt but that Clarkson would agree to give up the expedition, but still, if he wished to go on, there was nothing left but to go on with him: in which case I should hear at once, either by letter or from Mr. Starkie himself. As for my expenses at Paris, those would, of course, be defrayed by Mr. Brooke: but of this, and many other matters, more anon.

It was late in the evening when I arrived at the Avenue de Fontenoi. I went straight up to bed and slept heavily.

In the morning no one appeared for cafe au lait and petit pain in the salle-à-manger but Madame Rouff, her child, and myself. I learnt from her that there was a park quite close to us, the Parc Monceau. I went there at once. It is a pretty greenery. I found a sunlit, bubbling spring at the end of a pool in what I took to be a sham ruin. And so, first of all, sitting watching and playing with the stream: then sitting watching the passers and some horses being tried, I was happy enough for the time. The sense of