In them he saw an expression he
had seen there once or twice before, a faint but excessively irritating
gleam of amusement.
"Oh!--WELL!" said Dr. Martineau and turned away. He went to the window
and stared out as his habit was.
Sir Richmond continued to smile dimly at the doctor's back until his
eyes closed again.
It was their last exchange. Sir Richmond died that night in the small
hours, so quietly that for some time the night nurse did not observe
what had happened. She was indeed roused to that realization by the
ringing of the telephone bell in the adjacent study.
Section 5
For a long time that night Dr. Martineau had lain awake unable to sleep.
He was haunted by the figure of Sir Richmond lying on his uncomfortable
little bed in his big bedroom and by the curious effect of loneliness
produced by the nocturnal desk and by the evident dread felt by Sir
Richmond of any death-bed partings. He realized how much this man, who
had once sought so feverishly for intimacies, had shrunken back upon
himself, how solitary his motives had become, how rarely he had taken
counsel with anyone in his later years. His mind now dwelt apart. Even
if people came about him he would still be facing death alone.
And so it seemed he meant to slip out of life, as a man might slip
out of a crowded assembly, unobserved.
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