The next day but one they were at Asheville and two weeks later Howard
could not hide from himself that she would soon be gone.

* * * * *

Her bed was drawn up to the open window and she Was propped with pillows. A
mild breeze was flooding the room with the odours of the pine forests and
the gardens. She looked out, dilated her nostrils and her eyes.

"Beautiful!" she murmured. "It is so easy to die here."

She put out her hand and laid it in his.

"I want you, my Alice." He was looking into her eyes and she into his. "I
need you. I can't do without you."

She smiled with an expression of happiness. "Is it wrong," she asked, "to
take pleasure in another's pain? I see that you are in pain, that you
suffer. And, oh, it makes me happy, so happy."

"Don't," he begged. "Please don't."

"But listen," she went on. "Don't you see why? Because I--because I love
you. There," she was smiling again. "I promised myself I never, never would
say it first. And I've broken my word."

"What do you mean?"

"For nearly four years--all the years I've really lived--I have had only
one thought--my love for you. But I never would say it, never would say 'I