it was praying.
Yet it was n't like that either. He got inside me and made me talk to
myself. It was the first time words ever meant anything to me--that
they ever got a hold on me. You 've talked, little sister, Lord knows
how often, and how deep from the heart, but somehow, dear, nothing of
it sank in below the brain. I understood as in a sort of dream.
Sometimes I even remembered it for a little, but that was all.

"But he was different, Elaine! If I forgot every word he spoke, the
meaning of it would still be left. I 'd still feel his hand upon my
shoulder, the hand that sank through my shoulder and got a grip on
something inside me. I 'd still feel his eyes burning into mine. I 'd
still see that street out the window and know what it meant. I 'd even
see the little old lady picking her way to the other side,--see the
blind beggar on the corner and the Others. Oh, the Others, Elaine!"

He had risen from beside her and pressed towards the window as though
once again he wished to taste the air that came down to him from the
star-country to sweeten the decaying soul of him.

"What was it, Elaine?" he demanded.

"You heard," she answered, "because every fibre of him is true. Tell
me more."

"He showed me the sun on the windows!" he ran on eagerly. "He showed
me the people passing on the streets! He showed me what I--even I--had
to do among them. Did you know that we are n't just ourselves--that we
're a part of a thousand other lives? Did you know that?"

"It takes a seer really to know that," she answered, "but it's true."

"That's it," he broke in. "He _knows_! He doesn't guess, he doesn't
reason, he _knows_!"

She was leaning forward, her head a little back, her eyes half-closed.
He saw the veins in her neck--the light purple penciling of them--as
they throbbed. He was held a moment by the sight. Then he laughed
gently.

"Little sister," he said, "you know him even better than I."

She started back.

He was surprised at the shy beauty he perceived. She had always seemed
to him such a sober body.

The nurse rapped at the door.

"It is bedtime," she announced,

"Yes, nurse," she answered quickly.

"He asked if he might come to say good night. He 's going to stay here
with me a day or so. Shall I bring him up?"

She hesitated a moment and then meeting her brother's eyes steadily,
answered,

"Yes, Ben."

When Donaldson came into the room she was shocked at the change in his