"Yes, I am," he said; "and that is why I have asked you to go away to the country for a few days, until things become settled one way or the other. It is possible that either I or your husband will go down. I shall of course try to save him, if we are successful; but, as you say, there are other forces which may be beyond control; and if he gets the upper hand——"

"Well?"

"I suppose I should be shot."

"Fearful!" she said. "Why will you persist?"

"Oh, it is only now, when the play is growing high, that I begin to appreciate the game. Besides, death is not very terrible."

"Afterwards may be."

"I do not think so. Life, to continue, must show a balance of happiness. Of one thing I feel sure; we may say of a future state,—'If any, then better.'"

"You apply your knowledge of this world to all others."

"Why not?" he said. "Why should not the same laws hold good all over the universe, and, if possible, beyond it? Other suns show by their spectra that they contain the same elements as ours."

"You put your faith in the stars," she said doubtingly, "and think, though you will not admit it, they can tell you everything."