"I had just moment's impulse the door, three steps aside were needed most--though sure enough in my heart would open --and then that might delay me way appointment my honour was involved Afterwards sorry punctuality--might have peeped in, , and waved hand panthers, but enough not to seek again belatedly that not found by seeking Yes, made me very sorry .

"Years of hard work , and never sight door It's only recently it back With it there sense some thin tarnish had spread itself over my world I began of it as sorrowful and bitter thing that never see that door again Perhaps suffering little from overwork--perhaps what I've heard spoken of feeling of forty I don't know But certainly the keen brightness that makes effort easy has gone out of things recently, just --with all these new political developments--when I working Odd, isn't it ? But begin life toilsome, its rewards, as I come near them, cheap I began little while ago to want the garden quite badly Yes--and I've seen it three times "

"The garden ? "

"No---the door ! And I haven't gone in ! "

He leant over the table , with an enormous sorrow voice as he spoke "Thrice my chance--_thrice ! If ever that door offers itself again, I swore, go in, out dust and heat, out dry glitter of vanity, out toilsome futilities go and never return stay . I swore it, and time came--_I didn't go

"Three times in one year have I passed that door and failed to enter Three times last year

"The first time was night snatch division Tenants' Redemption Bill, the Government was saved by majority of three You remember ? No one side--perhaps very few opposite side-- expected the end that night Then the debate collapsed like eggshells I and Hotchkiss were dining cousin at Brentford; we were both unpaired, and we were called up by telephone, and set off at once cousin's motor We got in barely , and way we passed my wall and door--livid moonlight, blotched with hot yellow glare lamps lit it, but unmistakable 'My God ! ' cried I 'What ? ' said Hotchkiss 'Nothing ! ' I answered, moment passed

"'I've made great sacrifice,' the whip as I got in 'They all have,' , and hurried by

" how done otherwise then next occasion was as I rushed to my father's bedside to bid that stern old man farewell Then, too, the claims of life were imperative But the third time was different; it happened week ago It fills me with hot remorse to recall it with Gurker and Ralphs--it's no secret now, , that I've had my talk with Gurker We dining at Frobisher's, talk had become intimate The question place reconstructed Ministry lay always just over the boundary discussion Yes--yes That's all settled It needn't be talked about yet, but there's no reason secret . Yes--thanks ! thanks ! But let me tell you my story

"Then, night things were air My position was very delicate one keenly anxious some definite word from Gurker, but was hampered by Ralphs' presence using the best power brain that light and careless talk not too obviously directed point that concerned me I had to Ralphs' behaviour since has more than justified my caution . Ralphs, , would leave us beyond the Kensington High Street, and then surprise Gurker by sudden frankness One has sometimes to resort little devices . And then it margin field of vision I became aware once more white wall, the green door down the road

"We passed it talking I passed it still see the shadow of Gurker's marked profile, his opera hat tilted forward over his prominent nose, the many folds neck wrap going before my shadow and Ralphs' sauntered past

"I passed within twenty inches door 'If good-night , and go in,' I asked myself, ' happen ? ' And all a-tingle word with Gurker

" answer that question tangle other problems ' think me mad,' 'And suppose I vanish now ! ---Amazing disappearance of prominent politician ! ' That weighed with me thousand inconceivably petty worldlinesses weighed with me crisis "

Then he turned on me with sorrowful smile, and, speaking slowly, "Here ! "

"Here ! " he repeated, "and my chance has gone from me Three times in one year the door offered me--the door that goes into peace, into delight, into beauty beyond dreaming, kindness no man on earth can know And rejected it, Redmond, and it has gone----"

"How ? "

" left now to work it out, to stick tasks that held me so strongly when my moments came You say success--this vulgar, tawdry, irksome, envied thing it " He had walnut big hand " was my success," , and crushed it, and held it out

"Let me tell you something, Redmond This loss is destroying me For two months, for ten weeks nearly now, no work at all, except the most necessary and urgent duties My soul is full of inappeasable regrets At nights--when less likely recognised--I go out I wander Yes I wonder what people would think knew Cabinet Minister, the responsible head most vital of all departments, wandering alone--grieving--sometimes near audibly lamenting-- for door, for garden ! "

IV

now his rather pallid face, unfamiliar sombre fire that had come into his eyes him very vividly to-night I sit recalling his words, his tones, and last evening's Westminster Gazette still lies on my sofa, containing the notice death At lunch to-day the club was busy death We talked of nothing else

They found his body very early yesterday morning in deep excavation near East Kensington Station one of two shafts that made in connection with an extension railway southward protected intrusion public by hoarding high road, small doorway cut convenience of workmen who live direction The doorway was left unfastened through misunderstanding between two gangers, and through it his way .

My mind is darkened with questions and riddles

It would seem he walked all the way House that night--he has frequently walked home Session--and so I figure his dark form coming along the late and empty streets, wrapped up, intent And then did the pale electric lights near the station cheat the rough planking into semblance of white ? Did that fatal unfastened door awaken some memory ?

Was there, after all, ever any green door wall at all ?

know told his story as it times when I believe that Wallace was no more victim coincidence between rare but not unprecedented type of hallucination and careless trap, but that indeed my profoundest belief think me superstitious, , and foolish; but, indeed, more than half convinced that he had, in truth, an abnormal gift, and sense, something-- not what---that guise of wall and door offered him an outlet, secret and peculiar passage of escape into another and altogether more beautiful world At any rate, say, it betrayed him end But did it betray him ? There you touch the inmost mystery dreamers, these men of vision imagination We see our world fair and common, the hoarding pit By our daylight standard he walked out of security into darkness, danger, and death