husband.

She dressed quickly and went down. The little white old man
looked very solitary in the long, fireless, drawing-room.

'I could not sleep,' he said; 'I don't think I grasped in the
least, I don't indeed, until I was nearly home, the complexity of
our problem. I came, in fact, to a lamppost. It was casting a
peculiar shadow. And then--you know how such thoughts seize us,
my dear--like a sudden inspiration, I realised how tenuous, how
appallingly tenuous a hold we every one of us have on our mere
personality. But that,' he continued rapidly, 'that's only for
ourselves--and after the event. Ours, just now, is to act. And
first--?'

'You really do, then--you really are convinced--' began Mrs
Lawford.

But Mr Bethany was too quick. 'We must be most circumspect. My
dear friend, we must be most circumspect, for all our sakes. And
this, you'll say,' he added, smiling, stretching out his arms,
his soft hat in one hand, his umbrella in the other--'this is
being circumspect--a seven o'clock in the morning call! But you
see, my dear, I have come, as I took the precaution of explaining
to the maid, because it's now or never to-day. It does so happen
that I have to take a wedding for an old friend's niece at
Witchett; so when in need, you see, Providence enables us to tell
even the conventional truth. Now really, how is he? has he slept?
has he recalled himself at all? is there any change?--and, dear
me, how are YOU?'