Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/74

 VII

waited compassionately for his nervousness to pass, dropping again, during the pause, upon the sofa she had just occupied with her visitor. At last as, while she watched him, his silence continued, she put him a question. "Does she at any rate still maintain that she shan't get well?"

Tony removed his hands from his face. "With the utmost assurance—or rather with the utmost serenity. But she treats that now as a mere detail."

Rose wondered. "You mean she's really convinced that she's sinking?"

"So she says."

"But is she, good heavens? Such a thing isn't a matter of opinion: it's a fact or it's not a fact."

"It's not a fact," said Tony Bream. "How can it be when one has only to see that her strength hasn't failed? She of course says it has, but she