At this sound the greatness of spaces departed. I felt the world close about me; the world of darkened walls, of very deep grey dusk against the panes, and I asked in a pained voice:
"Why did you ring, Rita?"
There was a bell rope within reach of her hand. I had not felt her move, but she said very low:
"I rang for the lights."
"You didn't want the lights."
"It was time," she whispered secretly.
Somewhere within the house a door slammed. I got away from her feeling small and weak as if the best part of me had been torn away and irretrievably lost. Rose must have been somewhere near the door.
"It's abominable," I murmured to the still, idol-like shadow on the couch.
The answer was a hurried, nervous whisper: "I tell you it was time. I rang because I had no strength to push you away."
I suffered a moment of giddiness before the door opened, light streamed in, and Rose entered, preceding a man in a green baize apron whom I had never seen, carrying on an enormous tray three Argand lamps fitted into vases of Pompeiian form. Rose distributed them over the room. In the flood of soft light the winged youths and the butterfly women reappeared on the panels, affected, gorgeous, callously unconscious of anything having happened during their absence. Rose attended to the lamp on the nearest mantelpiece, then turned about and asked in a confident undertone.
"Monsieur dine?"
I had lost myself with my elbows on my knees and my
