beyond. She had to stifle her resentment, and her dislike of his “abstract” efforts.
“Do you feel awfully sure of yourself?” she said.
“Sure of myself?” he re-echoed. “No! Any day I may die and disappear from the face of the earth. I not only know it, I feel it. So why should I be sure of myself?”
“Why should you die?” she said.
“Why should anybody ever die?—even Carlota!”
“Ah!—her hour had come!”
“Can you set one’s hour as one sets an alarm clock?”
Kate paused.
“And if you’re not sure of yourself, what are you sure of?” she challenged.
He looked at her with dark eyes which she could not understand.
“I am sure—sure—” his voice tailed off into vagueness, his face seemed to go grey and peaked, as a