She was disappointed, but later she saw him sitting with it in his hand again, closed over one finger as if to keep the place, while he looked out of the window with a faraway expression in his eyes.

Later the nurse asked her what book it was he kept under his pillow.

He drew it out occasionally, she said, and glanced at one of the pages as if he were trying to memorize it.
That he had at last read it as she read it, putting himself in the place of Aldebaran, Mary knew one day from an unconscious reference he made to it.

A sudden wind had blown up, scattering papers and magazines across the room, and fluttering his curtains like flags.

She ran in to pick up the wind-blown articles and close the shutters.