’ ‘Damn you, I should have beaten you,’ Gerald swore, holding fast to his corner of the little square of linen. So, here he was, on the last lap of middle age, in China, having missed all the thrills in life except one—the war against Death. Her head ached with a hollow pain. “Until you marry, Vee,” said Hetty. “The very question, my dear sister,” she said, “tells me that I have succeeded.