it. I want you to: live for my sake. ... I will buy that picture.'

'There's only one thing I should care to live for.'

'And that you shall have.' 'Then I'll try to live.' He raised himself
a little in bed. His eyes were fixed on her and he tried hard to
believe. 'I'm afraid,' he said, 'it's too late now.' She watched him
with the eyes she knew he loved, and though ashamed of the question,
she could not put it back, and it slipped through her lips.

'Would you sooner live for me than for that picture?'

'One never knows what one would choose,' he said. 'Such speculations
are always vain, and never were they vainer than now. ... But I'm glad
you like that movement. It doesn't matter even if I never finish it, I
don't think it looks bad in its present state, does it?'

'It is a sketch, one of those things that could not be finished. ... I
recognise the model. _She_ sat for it, didn't she?'

'Yes.'

'You seem very intimate. ... She seems very devoted.'

'She has been very good to me. ... Don't say anything against her.
I've nothing to conceal, Mildred. It is an old story. It began long
before I knew you.'

'And continued while you knew me?'