'You have dropped your cigarette,' she said.
He looked at her for one half-second, and then, with rather slower-moving mind, recalled what he had said about not smoking any more.
'Yes, the doctors told me not to,' he said, feeling again the thrill of even this infinitesimal piece of fencing with her.
'They said it was a bad habit for me.'
She got up.
'Charlie, I don't know if I was right to tell you that,' she said.
'You mean it may lead me to hope that—I assure you it shall not. But it leaves things less utterly hopeless.'
She shook her head.
'You mustn't even think that,' she said.
'I can't help thinking that. While there is life, you know——I was lying'—and his eye brightened with a sudden excitement—' with throat ready for the guillotine. I could see it; they had not bandaged my eyes—but they have taken the knife away. No, I don't ask "What next?" The knife is gone: that is sufficient for the moment.'