There was a slight tinge of weariness in his companion's tone, as she asked: "Do people meet with their inevitable ends? Surely life is haphazard and death inconsequent?"
He shook his head. "You say you have read my book? I believe every life is formed as a complete wheel, of which the end closes up with the start, and the axis is some special adventure. Only so few are conscious of the shape ... they assume that adventure must of necessity be joyous adventure—loud clarion-calls—the D.S.O.... My round adventure was to be superfluous—the onlooker at other people's adventures—never One of Them.... I've felt it, always. Now I can see it—and give in. The Great War ... there's no room for superfluous people in the Great War. The best way they can fulfil themselves is by self-effacement ... self-removal. I haven't the pluck for suicide, Kathleen; but I have faith in my round adventure—and I'm going to Flanders, to Patricia, where my faith will prove itself ... some significant completion of the whole. Perhaps even I may be allowed in death what wasn't part of the scheme of life: to make an impression on the woman I love. Childish, I know—but ... yes, I think the Draughtsman will allow that. He has an excellent gift for irony."
"I must leave you here," said Kathleen abruptly.
They stood at the corner of Whitehall. She held out her hand.
"Good-bye."
Her inner thought was: "And I stood this sort of thing for sixteen years...."
"Good-bye," he said absently; "when shall I see you again?"... and let fall her hand and strolled away, his eyes still misty with visions.
About fifty seconds after he had left her side, a shattering explosion was heard in the neighbourhood of Trafalgar Square. An apparently friendly aeroplane had dropped a couple of random bombs; and then, soaring from the swoop, disappeared among the clouds. One of the bombs rolled harmlessly off the slate roof of an outhouse and did no mischief. The other wounded a cat, damaged an outjutting iron balcony, and killed Gareth Temple. A newspaper paragraph, reporting the incident the following day, remarked that the machine must have been one of our own which had fallen into German hands. "After releasing the bombs, the enemy was able to effect an escape. Fortunately the casualties were insignificant."
THE END