them as she did at fortunate and picturesque moments; and though their lives were literally braided into her own,—­were the golden threads in her otherwise dun fabric of existence,—­she was thankful that she did not have the task of caring for them.  It would have been torture to have been tied to their small needs all day and every day.  She liked far better the heavier work she did about the house, her long walks, her rides to town, and, when Karl was away, her supervision of the ranch.  Above all, there was her work at the village.  She could return from that to the children for refreshment and for spiritual illumination.  In the purity of their eyes, in the liquid sweetness of their voices, in their adorable grace and caprice, there was a healing force beyond her power to compute.

During these days, however, her pleasure in them was dim, though sweet.  She had been through a mystic experience which left a profound influence upon her, and she was too much under the spell of it even to make an effort to shake it off.  She slept lightly and woke often, to peer into the velvet blackness of the night and to listen to the deep silence.  She was as one who stands apart, the viewer of some tremendous but uncomprehended event.

The third day she sent the horses for Karl, and as twilight neared, he came driving home.  She heard his approach and threw open the door for him.  He saw her with a halo of light about her, curiously enlarged and glorified, and came slowly and heavily toward her, holding out both hands.  At first she thought he was ill, but as his hands grasped hers, she saw that he was not bringing a personal sorrow to her but a brotherly compassion.  And then she knew that something had happened to David.  She read his mind so far, almost as if it had been a printed page, and she might have read further, perhaps, if she had waited, but she cried out:—­

“What is it?  You’ve news of David?”

“Yes,” he said.  “Come in.”

“You’ve seen the papers?” he asked when they were within the house.  She shook her head.

“I haven’t sent over for the mail since you left, Karl.  I seemed to like the silence.”

“There’s silence enough in all patience!” he cried.  “Sixteen hundred voices have ceased.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The Cyclops has gone down—­a new ship, the largest on the sea.”

“Why, that seems impossible.”

“Not when there are icebergs floating off the banks and when the bergs carry submerged knives of ice.  One of them gored the ship.  It was fatal.”

“How terrible!” For a second’s space she had forgotten the possible application to her.  Then the knowledge came rushing back upon her.

She put her hands over her heart with the gesture of one wounded.

“David?” she gasped.

Karl nodded.