shrinking, sooner than give him pain!  The lessons must continue; for if they did, he was secure.  And lighting his cigar at last, he began trying to shape out how to put it to them all, and explain this strange intimacy; how to veil and wrap it away from the naked truth—­that he could not bear to be deprived of the sight of beauty.  Ah!  Holly!  Holly was fond of her, Holly liked her lessons.  She would save him—­his little sweet!  And with that happy thought he became serene, and wondered what he had been worrying about so fearfully.  He must not worry, it left him always curiously weak, and as if but half present in his own body.

That evening after dinner he had a return of the dizziness, though he did not faint.  He would not ring the bell, because he knew it would mean a fuss, and make his going up on the morrow more conspicuous.  When one grew old, the whole world was in conspiracy to limit freedom, and for what reason?—­just to keep the breath in him a little longer.  He did not want it at such cost.  Only the dog Balthasar saw his lonely recovery from that weakness; anxiously watched his master go to the sideboard and drink some brandy, instead of giving him a biscuit.  When at last old Jolyon felt able to tackle the stairs he went up to bed.  And, though still shaky next morning, the thought of the evening sustained and strengthened him.  It was always such a pleasure to give her a good dinner—­he suspected her of undereating when she was alone; and, at the opera to watch her eyes glow and brighten, the unconscious smiling of her lips.  She hadn’t much pleasure, and this was the last time he would be able to give her that treat.  But when he was packing his bag he caught himself wishing that he had not the fatigue of dressing for dinner before him, and the exertion, too, of telling her about June’s return.

The opera that evening was ‘Carmen,’ and he chose the last entr’acte to break the news, instinctively putting it off till the latest moment.

She took it quietly, queerly; in fact, he did not know how she had taken it before the wayward music lifted up again and silence became necessary.  The mask was down over her face, that mask behind which so much went on that he could not see.  She wanted time to think it over, no doubt!  He would not press her, for she would be coming to give her lesson to-morrow afternoon, and he should see her then when she had got used to the idea.  In the cab he talked only of the Carmen; he had seen better in the old days, but this one was not bad at all.  When he took her hand to say good-night, she bent quickly forward and kissed his forehead.

“Good-bye, dear Uncle Jolyon, you have been so sweet to me.”

“To-morrow then,” he said.  “Good-night.  Sleep well.”  She echoed softly:  “Sleep well” and from the cab window, already moving away, he saw her face screwed round towards him, and her hand put out in a gesture which seemed to linger.