“I think I lost my head, Wolf. I think I ran crying into the street. Anyway, people came round⁠ ⁠… a lot of people⁠ ⁠… and they fetched Doctor Percy. Father’s been like this ever since. Doctor Percy examined him. It’s some internal injury, he thinks. He says he thinks his spine is hurt in some way; but the worst injury is internal. He thinks”⁠—here the girl spoke in a voice that startled Wolf a good deal more than the meaning of her words⁠—“that he’s bleeding to death inside.”

Each five minutes that passed in this singular interlude seemed as long as twenty minutes of any ordinary time-flow. Christie was completely different from her ordinary self. She avoided Wolf’s eyes. She repelled his touch. She seemed reluctant to resume anything approaching their old intimacy.