“Say! Why, nothing! What can I say? But I don’t think I’ve ever seen any one die.”
“Nor have I till to-day,” said the girl, and shivered a little. “The euthanasia people were soon at work.”
Oliver took her hand gently.
“My darling, it must have been frightful. Why, you’re trembling still.”
“No; but listen.... You know, if I had had anything to say I could have said it too. They were all just in front of me: I wondered; then I knew I hadn’t. I couldn’t possibly have talked about Humanity.”
“My dear, it’s all very sad; but you know it doesn’t really matter. It’s all over.”
“And—and they’ve just stopped?”
“Why, yes.”
Mabel compressed her lips a little; then she sighed. She had an agitated sort of meditation in the train. She knew perfectly that it was sheer nerves; but she could not just yet shake them off. As she had said, it was the first time she had seen death.
“And that priest—that priest doesn’t think so?”