Paul stared at him truly dumfounded. "What can have happened thus suddenly to divert the current of your life and the tenor of your philosophy?"
"The inevitable, against which we fight in vain."
"And your advice—that I burn The Key—is given sincerely?"
"It is."
"I cannot realise that you mean it, Thessaly. I cannot realise that you are going."
"I am sorry, Mario. In these troublous days a cloud of misgiving hangs over every parting, since au revoir may mean good-bye. But I must go, following the precept of that wise man who said, 'Live unobserved, and if that cannot be, slip unobserved from life.'"
An hour later Paul was about to leave the house when a telegram was brought to him. He experienced great difficulty in grasping its purport. He could not make out from whom it came, and it seemed at first to be without meaning....
"Regret to inform you Captain Donald H. Courtier,—Coy., Irish Guards, killed in action...."
XI
On the following day a phenomenal storm burst upon London out of a blue sky. Tropical rain beat down into the heated streets and thunder roared in Titan anger. Paul came out of the War Office and stood on the steps for some moments watching a rivulet surging along the edge of the pavement.... "I am sorry, Mario, but it was mercifully swift, and his end was glorious. Ireland has disappointed some of us, but fellows like Courtier and those who went with him make one think...."