slipped in from the wood above, to comment on the waxing year.
She bent down to touch him with her lips.

He started, and cried passionately, "Never forget that your
greatest thing is over. I have forgotten: I am too weak. You
shall never forget. What I said to you then is greater than what
I say to you now. What he gave you then is greater than anything
you will get from me."

She was frightened. Again she had the sense of something
abnormal. Then she said, "What is all this nonsense?" and folded
him in her arms.



VIII

Ansell stood looking at his breakfast-table, which was laid for
four instead of two. His bedmaker, equally peevish, explained how
it had happened. Last night, at one in the morning, the porter
had been awoke with a note for the kitchens, and in that note Mr.
Elliot said that all these things were to be sent to Mr.
Ansell's.

"The fools have sent the original order as well. Here's the
lemon-sole for two. I can't move for food."

"The note being ambigerous, the Kitchens judged best to send it
all." She spoke of the kitchens in a half-respectful,
half-pitying way, much as one speaks of Parliament.