Notwithstanding | Page 8

Annette?"
"Dear Dick, there is nothing to forgive. I was more to blame than you."
"It was instead of the Seine. That was the excuse I made to myself. But
the wind blows it away. It blows everything away--everything,
everything.... Don't be angry again like that, Annette. Promise me you
won't. You were too angry, and I took a mean advantage of it.... I once
took advantage of a man's anger with a horse, but it brought me no luck.
I thought I wouldn't do it again, but I did. And I haven't got much out
of it this time either. I'm dying, or something like it. I'm going away for
good and all. I'm so tired I don't know how I shall ever get there."
"Rest a little, Dick. Don't talk any more now,"
"I want to give you a tip before I go. An old trainer put me up to it, and
he made me promise not to tell anyone, and I haven't till now. But I
want to do you a good turn to make up for the bad one. He said he'd
never known it fail, and I haven't either. I've tried it scores of times.
When you're angry, Annette, look at a cloud." Dick's blue eyes were

fixed with a great earnestness on hers. "Not just for a minute. Choose a
good big one, like a lot of cotton wool, and go on looking at it while it
moves. And the anger goes away. Sounds rot, doesn't it? But you
simply can't stay angry. Seems as if everything were too small and
footling to matter. Try it, Annette. Don't look at water any more. That's
no use. But a cloud--the bigger the better.... You won't drown yourself
now, will you?"
"No."
"Annette rolling down to the sea over and over, knocking against the
bridges. I can't bear to think of it. Promise me."
"I promise."
He sighed, and his hand fell out of hers. She laid it down. The great
wind of which he spoke had taken him once more, whither he knew not.
She leaned her face against the pillow and longed that she too might be
swept away whither she knew not.
The doctor came in and looked at them.
"Are his family coming soon?" he asked Mrs. Stoddart afterwards.
"And Madame Le Geyt! Can Madame's mother be summoned? There
has been some great shock. Her eyes show it. It is not only Monsieur
who is on the verge of the precipice."

Chapter 5
"And he the wind-whipped, any whither wave Crazily tumbled on a
shingle-grave To waste in foam." -- Gerorge Meredith
Towards evening Dick regained consciousness.
"Annette." That was always the first word.

"Here." That was always the second.
"I lost the way back," he said breathlessly. "I thought I should never
find it, but I had to come."
He made a little motion with his hand, and she took it.
"You must help me. I have no one but you." His eyes dwelt on her. His
helpless soul clung to hers, as hers did to his. They were like two
shipwrecked people--were they not indeed shipwrecked?--cowering on
a raft together, alone, in the great ring of the sea.
"What can I do?" she said. "Tell me and I will do it."
"I have made no provision for Mary or--the little one. I promised her I
would when it was born. But I haven't done it. I thought of it when I
fell on my head. But when I was better next day I put it off. I always
put things off... And it's not only Mary. There's Hulver, and the Scotch
property, and all the rest. If I die without making a will it will all go to
poor Harry." He was speaking rapidly, more to himself than to her.
"And when father was dying he said, 'Roger ought to have it.' Father
was a just man. And I like Roger, and he's done his duty by the place,
which I haven't. He ought to have it. Annette, help me to make my will.
I was on my way to the lawyer's to make it when I met you on the
bridge."
Half an hour later, in the waning day, the notary arrived, and Dick
made his will in the doctor's presence. His mind was amazingly clear.
"Is he better?" asked Mrs. Stoddart of the doctor, as she and the nurse
left the room.
"Better! It is the last flare up of the lamp," said the doctor. "He is right
when he says he shan't get back here again. He is riding his last race,
but he is riding to win."
Dick rode for all he was worth, and urged the doctor to help him, to
keep his mind from drifting