Page:The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman.djvu/15

 to Arthur’s wife, when, for all he knew, he might never see her alive again. . . I prefer just to say that everything went off most satisfactorily and that I hope now to be better than I have been for years. ..

It was anxiety more than anything else. A prolonged strain always finds out the weak place: Arthur complaining that he had lost some of his directorships and that, with the war, he was being offered none to take their place; talk of selling the house in Mount Street, every corner filled with a wonderful memory of old happy days when the princess almost lived with me; sometimes no news from the front for weeks, and that could only mean that my boy Will was moving up with the staff. It was just when I was at my wits’ end that he wrote to say that he must have five hundred pounds. He gave no reason, so I assumed that one of his friends must be in trouble; and I was not to tell Arthur. . . This last effort really exhausted me; and I knew that, if I was not to be a useless encumbrance to everybody, I must “go into dock,” as Will would say, “for overhauling and repairs.” Dr. Richardson really seemed reluctant to impose any further tax on my vitality at such a time, but I assured him that I was not afraid of the knife. So here you find me!