"I'm so glad. I couldn't bear an argument to-night."
The effort she had made on my arrival had spent itself, and I was not at all certain whether I ought to stay.
"Look here," I said, "if you're too tired to see me, I'll go."
"Please, don't!" she laid a restraining hand on my sleeve. "I'm all right if you don't argue or use long words; but I've had such a headache the last few days that I haven't been able to sleep, and now I don't seem able to fix my attention properly, or remember things."
I had met these symptoms before; the first time in India with men who were being kept too long at work in the hot weather.
"In other words, you want a long rest."
She nodded without speaking.
"Why don't you take it?"
"I simply can't. I've put my hand to the plough, and you know what we are. Obstinate, hard-mouthed brutes, the whole family of us. I've got other people to consider, I mustn't fail them."
"And the benighted, insignificant people who don't happen to be your followers? Some of them may cherish a flickering interest in your existence."