The Purple Cloud

by M. P. Shiel

'Why should you, Clodagh? I am not bound to desire to go to the North Pole, am I?'

'But you would go, I suppose, if you could?'

'I might—I—doubt it. There is our marriage....'

'Marriage indeed! It is the one thing to transform our marriage from a sneaking difficulty to a ten times triumphant event.'

'You mean if I personally were the first to stand at the Pole. But there are many in an expedition. It is very unlikely that I, personally—'

'For me you will, Adam—' she began.

'"Will," Clodagh?' I cried. 'You say "will"? there is not even the slightest shadow of a probability—!'

'But why? There are still three weeks before the start. They say...'

She stopped, she stopped.

'They say what?'