If we never meet again, think kindly of him
who would die for you.
"Your faithful friend and servant,
"Anthony Cardew."
I was like one who has had a blow and a bad one, and I felt a curious
quietness steal upon me and numb me. Despite the sweet, warm air of the
summer night I was cold. In the quietness I heard the Abbey clock strike
twelve; I heard soft stirrings in the leaves outside; a thousand little
sounds which I would not have noticed at another time, that were
distinct in the stillness that had come upon me.
I went on making my preparations for bed as though nothing had happened.
I omitted nothing, but all the time I felt as though I were somehow
outside my body and knew the dull numbness of it as a thing apart.
When I was ready at last I unlocked the door so that the maid who came
with my morning tea and my bath-water should not find it locked. Then I
blew out the candles, and, taking the letter in my hand, I crept into
bed.
That night I was awakened by the crying in the shrubbery outside which I
had not heard for a long time, and I listened to it, cold in the
darkness, till the cocks began crowing and then it ceased.
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