It only wants half an hour to dinner." "I will be ready." And so she was.

But for twenty of the thirty minutes she had lain motionless on her bed, almost like a dead figure, as passive and as white.

Then she rose, dressed herself, and went down to the formal meal, and to the somber, safe routine of her present existence, as it would flow on--and she prayed with all her heart it might--until she died..