“You will please to hear me out,” he said wearily.  “Well, now that this has happened, there is a new morality; it is exactly like a child coming to the age of reason.  We are obliged, therefore, to see that this continues—­that there is no going back—­no mortification—­that all the limbs are in good health.  ‘If thy hand offend thee, cut it off,’ said Jesus Christ.  Well, that is what we say....  Now, for any one to say that they believe in God—­I doubt very much whether there is any one who really does believe, or understand what it means—­but for any one even to say so is the very worst crime conceivable:  it is high treason.  But there is going to be no violence; it will all be quite quiet and merciful.  Why, you have always approved of Euthanasia, as we all do.  Well, it is that that will be used; and—–­”

Once more she made a little movement with her hand.  The rest of her was like an image.

“Is this any use?” she asked.

Oliver stood up.  He could not bear the hardness of her voice.

“Mabel, my darling—–­”

For an instant her lips shook; then again she looked at him with eyes of ice.

“I don’t want that,” she said.  “It is of no use..  Then you did sign it?”

Oliver had a sense of miserable desperation as he looked back at her.  He would infinitely have preferred that she had stormed and wept.

“Mabel—–­” he cried again.

“Then you did sign it?”

“I did sign it,” he said at last.

She turned and went towards the door.  He sprang after her.

“Mabel, where are you going?”

Then, for the first time in her life, she lied to her husband frankly and fully.

“I am going to rest a little,” she said.  “I shall see you presently at supper.”

He still hesitated, but she met his eyes, pale indeed, but so honest that he fell back.

“Very well, my dear....  Mabel, try to understand.”

* * * * *

He came down to supper half-an-hour later, primed with logic, and even kindled with emotion.  The argument seemed to him now so utterly convincing; granted the premises that they both accepted and lived by, the conclusion was simply inevitable.

He waited a minute or two, and at last went to the tube that communicated with the servants’ quarters.

“Where is Mrs. Brand?” he asked.

There was an instant’s silence, and then the answer came: 

“She left the house half-an-hour ago, sir.  I thought you knew.”

III

That same evening Mr. Francis was very busy in his office over the details connected with the festival of Sustenance that was to be celebrated on the first of July.  It was the first time that the particular ceremony had taken place, and he was anxious that it should be as successful as its predecessors.  There were a few differences between this and the others, and it was necessary that the ceremoniarii should be fully instructed.