She leant back against the bookcases under the window.

“We've had some good times, Master;” she said, with a sigh in her voice.

And then for a long time we stared at one another in silence.

“We haven't much time left,” she said.

“Shall we bolt?” I said.

“And leave all this?” she asked, with her eyes going round the room. “And that?” And her head indicated Westminster. “No!”

I said no more of bolting.

“We've got to screw ourselves up to surrender,” she said.

“Something.”

“A lot.”