s when it is too late....
Yesterday evening she was there, under the lamp like her sisters,
and you would not see them as they should be seen, if this had not
occurred.... I seem to see her now for the first time.... Something
must be added to common life before we can understand it.... They are
beside you day and night, and you perceive them only at the moment
when they depart forever.... And yet the strange little soul she must
have had; the poor, naive, exhaustless little soul she had, my son,
if she said what she must have said, if she did what she mast have
done!...

THE STRANGER.

Just now they are smiling in silence in the room....

THE OLD MAN.

They are at peace.... They did not expect her to-night....

THE STRANGER.

They smile without stirring;... and see, the father is putting his
finger on his lips....

THE OLD MAN.

He is calling attention to the child asleep on its mother's heart....

THE STRANGER.

She dares not raise her eyes lest she disturb its sleep....

THE OLD MAN.

They are no longer working.... A great silence reigns....

THE STRANGER.

They have let fell the skein of white silk....

THE OLD MAN.

They are watching the child....

THE STRANGER.

They do not know that others are watching them....

THE OLD MAN.

We are watched too....

THE STRANGER.

They have lifted their eyes....

THE OLD MAN.

And yet they can see nothing....

THE STRANGER.

They seem happy; and yet nobody knows what may be--....

THE OLD MAN.

They think themselves in safety.... They have shut the doors; and
the windows have iron bars.... They have mended the walls of the old
house; they have put bolts upon the oaken doors.... They have foreseen
all that could be foreseen....

THE STRANGER.

We must end by telling them.... Some one might come and let them know
abruptly.... There was a crowd of peasants in the meadow where the
dead girl was found.... If one of them knocked at the door...

THE OLD MAN.

Martha and Mary are beside the poor dead child. The peasants were to
make a litter of leaves; and I told the elder to come warn us in all
haste, the moment they began their march. Let us wait till she comes;
she will go in with me.... We should not have looked on them so.... I
thought it would be only to knock upon the door; to go in simply, find
a phrase or two, and tell.... But I have seen them live too long under
their lamp....

_Enter_ MARY.

MARY.

They are coming, grandfat