Yet I was not in high spirits when I re-entered my familiar room.
PART IV.
LIEUTENANT VON BELKE'S NARRATIVE CONCLUDED
I.
WEDNESDAY.
I woke on Wednesday morning with an outlook so changed that I felt as if some magician must have altered my nature. Theoretically I had taken a momentous and dangerous decision at the call of duty, and all my energies ought to have concentrated on the task of carrying it through safely, thoroughly, and warily. I had need of more caution than ever, and of the most constant vigilance—both for the sake of my skin and my country. As a matter of fact I was possessed with the recklessness of a man drifting on a plank down a rapid, where taking thought will not serve him an iota. In vain I preached theoretical caution to myself—exactly how vainly may be judged by my first performance in the morning when I found myself alone with Eileen in the parlour. She suggested that for my own sake I had better be getting back to my room.
"Will you come and sit there with me?" I asked.
"I may pay a call upon you perhaps."
"After hours of loneliness! And then leave me lonelier than ever! No, thank you, I shall stay down here."