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When Latimer recovers his equilibrium and regards the transaction in the
dry light of reason, he will diagnose a sure symptom of megalomania, and
will pity me in his heart for a poor devil.

I have seen Eleanor Faversham, and she has released me from my
engagement with such grace, dignity, and sweet womanliness that I wonder
how I could have railed at her thousand virtues.
"It's honourable of you to give me this opportunity of breaking it off,
Simon," she said, "but I care enough for you to be willing to take my
chance of illness."
"You do care for me?" I asked.
She raised astonished eyes. "If I didn't, do you suppose I should have
engaged myself to you? If I married you I should swear to cherish you in
sickness and in health. Why won't you let me?"
I was in a difficulty. To say that I was in ill-health and about to
resign my seat in Parliament and a slave to doctor's orders was one
thing; it was another to tell her brutally that I had received my death
warrant. She would have taken it much more to heart than I do.


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