“He was on it—­with Mary.  They were coming back to America.  He had been given the Norden prize, as you know,—­the prize you earned for him.  I think he was to take a position in some Eastern university.  He and Mary had gone to their room, the paper says, when the shock came.  They ran out together, half-dressed, and Mary asked a steward if there was anything the matter.  ‘Yes, madam,’ he said quietly, just like that, ’I believe we are sinking.’  You’ll read all about it there in those papers.  Mary was interviewed.  Well, they lowered the boats.  There were enough for about a third of the passengers.  They had made every provision for luxury, but not nearly enough for safety.  The men helped the women into the boats and sent them away.  Then they sat down together, folded their arms, and died like gentlemen, with the good musicians heartening them with their music to the last.  The captain went down with his ship, of course.  All of the officers did that.  Almost all of the men did it, too.  It was very gallant in its terrible way, and David was among the most gallant.  The papers mention him particularly.  He worked till the last helping the others off, and then he sat down and waited for the end.”

Honora turned on her cousin a face in which all the candles of her soul were lit.

“Oh, Karl, how wonderful!  How beautiful!”

He said nothing for amazement.

“In that half-hour,” she went on, speaking with such swiftness that he could hardly follow her, “all his thoughts streamed off across the miles of sea and land to me!  I felt the warmth of them all about me.  It was myself he was thinking of.  He came back to me, his wife!  I was alone, waiting for something, I couldn’t tell what.  Then I remembered it was his birthday, and that I should be sending him a gift.  So I sent him my forgiveness.  I wrote a letter, but for some reason I have not sent it.  It is here, the letter!” She drew it from her bosom.  “See, the date and hour is upon it.  Read it.”

Karl arose and held the letter in a shaking hand.  He made a calculation.

“The moments correspond,” he said.  “You are right; his spirit sought yours.”

“And then the—­the drowning, Karl.  I felt it all, but I could not understand.  I died and was dead for a long time, but I came up again, to live.  Only since then life has been very curious.  I have felt like a ghost that missed its grave.  I’ve been walking around, pretending to live, but really half hearing and half seeing, and waiting for you to come back and explain.”

“I have explained,” said Karl with infinite gentleness.  “Mary is saved.  She was taken up with others by the Urbania, and friends are caring for her in New York.  She gave a very lucid interview; a feeling one, too.  She lives, but the man she ruined went down, for her sake.”

“No,” said Honora, “he went down for my sake.  He went down for the sake of his ideals, and his ideals were mine.  Oh, how beautiful that I have forgiven him—­and how wonderful that he knew it, and that I—­” She spoke as one to whom a great happiness had come.  Then she wavered, reached out groping hands, and fell forward in Karl’s arms.