"If you wish it."
"Thank you very much. Now I think I shall go to sleep."
I went downstairs and led O'Rane to the far end of the library. He stood with his hands in his pockets and his back to the fire, rocking in his old way from heel to toe.
"Have you read it?" he asked me, when I had explained his wife's request.
"Yes."
He held out his hand for the papers.
"And you remember everything she said?"
"Pretty well."
He rocked in silence for a moment and then smiled whimsically.
"I suppose you could—forget it, if you tried?" he suggested. "Perhaps it would help you to forget it, if we got rid of this. I usually burn myself when I start playing with fire; perhaps you wouldn't mind putting this in. Don't set the chimney alight, will you?"