"I decided to be faint and stupid. 'That way,' I said faintly.
"'A pawnshop?'
"Best not to answer. Then as if by an effort, 'Lil' shop.'
"'Unredeemed pledges?'
"I said nothing to that. I was thinking of another touch to the picture I was painting.
"I spoke with weak indignation. 'I didn't think it was loaded. How was I to know it was loaded? It ought not to have been sold—loaded like that. I was just looking at it—
"I stopped short and shammed exhaustion. Then I felt that I was not shamming exhaustion. I was exhausted. Gods! but the stuffing was out of me! I was sinking, sinking, out of the bedroom, out from among this group of people. They were getting little and faint and flimsy. Was there anything more to say? Too late if there was. I was falling asleep, falling into a sleep, so profound, so fathomless....
"Far away now was the little roomful of people, and infinitely small.
"'He's going!' somebody said in a minute voice.
"I seemed to come back for an instant.