"Gas, then?"
"Why, certainly, I gave gas."
"Did I ask for it?"
"Yes. You asked for it. Even if you had n't—You don't bear pain, you know, Avery, with that composure"—
"Armstrong? Say, Armstrong. When you went over to the club with me"—
The dentist twisted his mustache.
—"was Romer's yacht lying out in the river then? I seem to remember that you did n't want me to take that trip. And you did n't know it would blow a gale, either. And you did n't know that she"—
"Get up, Avery, and walk about the room. You come to slowly."
"And when the wreck got into the papers—she could n't bear that.... She was so ill when I left her ... Armstrong! Was it you kept me here in this blanked chair while my wife was dying?"
Dr. Armstrong laughed aloud. Avery sprang towards him. He had a muddy intention of seizing the dentist by the throat. But a thought occurred to him which held him back. Now, as his consciousness clarified, he saw brilliant and beautiful light throbbing about him; he seemed to float in it, as if he were poised in mid-heaven. A scintillation in his brain shot into glory, and broke as it fell into a thousand rays and jets of joy.