Page:Whyte-Melville--Bones and I.djvu/113

 Bath chair. I am so tired sometimes, and yet I dare not wish it was all over. Think of me as forbearingly as you can, for we shall not cross each other's path again.'

" 'And this boy?' I asked, striving to detect something of compunction in the pitiless face that was yet so beautiful.

" 'He must take his chance with the rest,' she said. 'Here he comes—good-bye.'

"They walked away arm-in-arm through the golden autumn weather, and a chill came into my very heart, for I knew what that chance was worth.

"A few months, and the snow lay six inches deep over the grave of him whose opening manhood had been so full of promise, so rich in all that makes youth brightest, life most worth having; while a woman in deep mourning was praying there, under the wintry sky; but this woman was his