"All my magnificence had gone from me I walked up and down our rock cell, and outside darkling sea and light southward that flared and passed and came again

"' get out place,' over and over ' my choice, and no hand troubles nothing war taken our lives out of all these things no refuge go '

" we were already in flight war that covered the world

"And all the rest was Flight--all the rest was Flight "

He mused darkly

" was there of it ? "

no answer

" days ? "

His face was white and drawn hands were clenched no heed curiosity

I tried to draw him back story with questions

"Where did you go ? "

"When ? "

" left Capri "

"South-west," , and glanced at me for second "We went in boat "

"But thought an aeroplane ? "

"They seized "

I questioned him no more Presently beginning again He broke out in an argumentative monotone:

"But why should it be ? If, indeed, this battle, this slaughter and stress, _is life, why have we this craving for pleasure and beauty ? If there _is no refuge, no place of peace, and if all our dreams of quiet places are folly and snare, why have we such dreams ? Surely no ignoble cravings, no base intentions, had brought us ; love had isolated us Love had come with her eyes and robed in her beauty, more glorious than all else in life, very shape and colour of life, and summoned me away I had silenced all the voices, I had answered all the questions--I had come to her And suddenly nothing but War and Death ! "

I had an inspiration "After all," , "it only dream "

"A dream ! " he cried, flaming upon me, "a dream--when, even now--"

first time he became animated faint flush crept into his cheek He raised his open hand and clenched it, and dropped it knee He spoke, looking away from me, and for all the rest time he looked away " but phantoms," , " phantoms of phantoms, desires like cloud shadows and wills of straw that eddy wind; the days pass, use and wont carry us through as train carries the shadow lights--so be it ? But is real and certain, is no dream stuff, but eternal and enduring centre life, and all other things are subordinate or altogether vain I loved her, that woman of dream And she and I are dead together !

"A dream ! How can it be dream, when it drenched living life with unappeasable sorrow, when it makes all that lived for and cared for worthless and unmeaning ?

"Until that very moment when she was killed I believed we had still chance of getting away," "All night and morning that we sailed across the sea from Capri to Salerno we talked of escape We were full of hope, and it clung about us end, hope life together lead, out of it all, battle and struggle, the wild and empty passions, the empty, arbitrary 'thou shalt' and 'thou shalt not' world We were uplifted, our quest was holy thing, love another was mission .

"Even when boat we saw the fair face great rock Capri-- already scarred and gashed gun emplacements and hiding-places that were it fastness--we reckoned nothing imminent slaughter, though the fury of preparation hung about in puffs and clouds of dust at hundred points amidst the grey; but, indeed, text and talked There, , rock, still beautiful for all its scars, with its countless windows and arches and ways, tier upon tier, for thousand feet, vast carving of grey, broken by vine-clad terraces, and lemon and orange groves, and masses of agave and prickly pear, and puffs of almond blossom And out under the archway built over the Piccola Marina other boats were coming; and came round the cape and within sight mainland, another little string of boats came into view, driving wind towards the south-west In little while multitude had come out, the remoter just little specks of ultramarine shadow eastward cliff

"' love and reason,' , 'fleeing from all this madness of war '

"And though we presently saw squadron of aeroplanes flying across the southern sky heed it There --a line of little dots sky--and then more, dotting the south-eastern horizon, and then still more, until all that quarter sky was stippled with blue specks Now they were all thin little strokes of blue, and now one and now multitude would heel and catch the sun and become short flashes of light They came, rising and falling and growing larger, like some huge flight of gulls or rooks or such-like birds, moving with marvellous uniformity, and ever drew nearer they spread over greater width of sky The southward wing flung itself in an arrow-headed cloud athwart the sun And then suddenly they swept round eastward and streamed eastward, growing smaller and smaller and clearer and clearer again until they vanished sky And we noted northward, and very high, Gresham's fighting machines hanging high over Naples like an evening swarm of gnats

"It seemed no more than flight of birds

"Even the mutter of guns far away south-east seemed to signify nothing .

" , each dream , we were still exalted, still seeking that refuge where live and love Fatigue had come upon us, pain and many distresses For though we were dusty and stained by our toilsome tramping, and half starved, and horror dead men we had seen flight peasants--for gust of fighting swept up the peninsula-- things haunting our minds it still resulted only in deepening resolution to escape Oh, but she was brave and patient ! She who had never faced hardship and exposure had courage for herself--and me We went to and fro seeking an outlet, over country all commandeered and ransacked gathering hosts of war Always we went on foot At first there were other fugitives, but mingle Some escaped northward, some were caught torrent of peasantry that swept along the main roads; many gave themselves hands soldiery and were sent northward men were impressed But we kept away things; we had brought no money to bribe passage north, and I feared lady hands conscript crowds We had landed at Salerno, and we turned back from Cava, and we had tried to cross towards Taranto by pass over Mount Alburno, but we driven back for want of food, and so we had come down marshes by Paestum, where those great temples stand alone I had some vague idea that by Paestum it possible boat or something, and take once more to sea And there it battle overtook us

"A sort of soul-blindness had me Plainly I that we were being hemmed in; great net giant Warfare had us in its toils we had seen the levies that had come down north going to and fro, and had come upon them distance amidst the mountains making ways ammunition and preparing the mounting guns Once we fancied they had fired at us, taking us for spies--at any rate shot had gone shuddering over us we had hidden in woods from hovering aeroplanes

"But all these things matter now, these nights of flight and pain . We were in an open place near those great temples at Paestum, at last, on blank stony place dotted with spiky bushes, empty and desolate and so flat that grove of eucalyptus far away showed feet stems How it ! My lady was sitting down under bush resting little, for she was very weak and weary, and standing up watching if tell the distance firing that came and went They were still, , fighting far from , terrible new weapons that had never before been used: guns carry beyond sight, and aeroplanes do----What do no man could foretell

" that we were two armies, and drew together we were in danger, stop there and rest !

"Though all those things were in my mind, they were background They seemed affairs beyond our concern Chiefly, thinking lady An aching distress filled me first time she had owned herself beaten and had fallen a-weeping Behind me hear her sobbing, but turn round to her because she had need of weeping, and had held herself and well, , that weep and rest, and then toil on again, for I had no inkling thing that hung so near Even now her as she sat there, her lovely hair upon her shoulder, can mark again the deepening hollow of her cheek

"' had parted,' she said, 'if I had let you go--'