put in a note of thunder and a clank of chains. I found myself curiously
unable to understand what possible purpose remained to keep them in
motion. The past that had made them had come to an end, and their future
had been devoured by a new conception. And what of Churchill? He, too,
had worked for the future; he would live on, but he had already ceased
to exist. I had evoked him in this poignant thought and he came not
alone. He came with a train of all the vanquished in this stealthy,
unseen contest for an immense stake in which I was one of the victors.
They crowded upon me. I saw Fox, Polehampton, de Mersch himself, crowds
of figures without a name, women with whom I had fancied myself in love,
men I had shaken by the hand, Lea's reproachful, ironical face. They
were near; near enough to touch; nearer. I did not only see them, I
absolutely felt them all. Their tumultuous and silent stir seemed to
raise a tumult in my breast.

I sprang suddenly to my feet--a sensation that I had had before, that
was not new to me, a remembered fear, had me fast; a remembered voice
seemed to speak clearly incomprehensible words that had moved me before.
The sheer faces of the enormous buildings near at hand seemed to topple
forwards like cliffs in an earthquake, and for an instant I saw beyond
them into unknown depths that I had seen into before. It was as if the
shadow of annihilation had passed over them beneath the sunshine. Then
they returned to rest; motionless, but with a changed aspect.

"This is too absurd," I said to myself. "I am not well." I was certainly
unfit for any sort of work. "But I must get through the day somehow."
To-morrow ... to-morrow.... I had a pale vision of her face as it had
appeared to me at sunset on the first day I had met her.

I went back to my club--to lunch, of course. I had no appetite, but I