Marlow paused, crossed his arms on his breast, and in a changed tone-
"She said we lied. Poor soul. Well- let's leave it to Chance, whose ally is Time that cannot be hurried, and whose enemy is Death, that will not wait. I had retreated- a little cowed, I must own. I had tried a fall with fear itself and got thrown- of course. I had only succeeded in adding to her anguish the hint of some mysterious collusion, of an inexplicable and incomprehensible conspiracy to keep her for ever in the dark. And it had come easily, naturally, unavoidably, by his act, by her own act! It was as though I had been shown the working of the implacable destiny of which we are the victims- and the tools. It was appalling to think of the girl whom I had left standing there motionless; Jim's footsteps had a fate
