have led him, if she could, out of the protecting, confining walls, into the open, where people are struggling and perishing for lack of a little pity; but he wouldn’t.  So far the time hasn’t been ripe for his saving; his day is still to come.  It’s up to all of us who care for him—­and can any of us help it?—­to save him from himself.  And chiefly it’s your job and Lucy’s.  You can do your part now only by clearing out of the way, and leaving Lucy to do hers.  She will do it, I firmly believe, in the end, if you give her time.  Lucy, I know, for I have seen it when I have been with her, has been troubled about her own removal from the arena, about her own being confined between walls so that she can’t hear the people outside calling; but that is mere egotism.  She can hear and see all right; she has all her senses, and she will never stop using them.  It’s her business to be concerned for Denis, who is blind and deaf.  It’s her business to use her own caring to make him care.  She’s got to drag him out, not to let herself be shut inside with him.  It can be done, and Lucy, if anyone in the world, can do it—­if she doesn’t give up and shirk.  Lucy, if anyone in the world, has the right touch, the right loosing power, to set Denis free.  I think that you too have the touch and the power—­but you mustn’t use yours; the time for that is gone by.  Yours is the much harder business of clearing out of the way.  If you ever loved Denis, you will do that.”

He paused and looked at Peter, who was still sitting on the floor, motionless, with bent head.

“May I go on?” said Rodney, and Peter answered nothing.

Rodney looked away again out of the window into a grey night sky that hid the Easter moon, and went on, gently.  He was tired of talking; his discourse had been already nearly as long as an average woman; but he went on deliberately talking and talking, to give Peter time.

“So, you see, that is an excellent reason—­to you it is, I believe, the incontrovertible reason—­why you should once more give up and lose, and not take.  But, deeper than that, to me more insurmountable than that, is the true reason, which is simply that that very thing—­to lose, to do without—­is your business in life, as you’ve said yourself.  It’s your profession.  You are in the camp of the Have-Nots; you belong there.  You can’t desert.  You can’t step out and go over to the enemy.  If you did, if you could (only you can’t) it would be a betrayal.  And, whatever you gained, you’d lose by it what you have at present—­your fellowship with the other unfortunates.  Isn’t that a thing worth having?  Isn’t it something to be down on the ground with the poor and empty-handed, not above them, where you can’t hear them crying and laughing?  Would you, if you could, be one of the prosperous, who don’t care?  Would you, if you could, be one of those who have their joy in life ready-made and put into their hands, instead of one of the poor craftsmen who have to make their own?  What’s