ike your inland eyes?" He pointed to the north.

"It's awful. It's like the anger of God." She spoke into his bowed
ear.

"Please don't think I'm reporting it," he explained. "I'm only making
a few notes about it for an editorial on the need of harbors."

Each moment the fury increased, the waves deepened. The commotion sank
down amid the sands of the deeper inshore water, and it boiled like
milk. Splendid colors grew into it near at hand; the winds tore at the
tops of the waves, and wove them into tawny banners, which blurred the
air like blown sand. On the horizon the waves leaped in savage ranks,
clutching at the sky like insane sea monsters,--frantic, futile.

"I've seen the Atlantic twice during a gale," shouted the artist to a
companion, "but I never saw anything more awful than this. These waves
are quicker and higher. I don't see how a vessel could live in it if
caught broadside."

"It's the worst I ever saw here."

"I'm going down to the south side: would you like to go?" Mason asked
of Rose.

"I would indeed," she replied.

Back from the lake shore the wind was less powerful but more
uncertain. It came in gusts which nearly upturned the street cars. Men
and women scudded from shelter to shelter, like beleaguered citizens
avoiding cannon shots.

"What makes our lake so terrible," said Mason in the car, "is the fact
that it has a smooth shore--no indentations, no harbors. There is only
one harbor here at Chicago, behind the breakwater, and every vessel in
mid-lake must come here. Those flying ships are seeking safety here
like birds. The harbor will be full of disabled vessels."

As they left the car, a roaring gust swept around a twenty-story
building with such power [that] Rose would have been taken off her
feet had not Mason put his arms about her shoulders.

"You're at a disadvantage," he said, "with skirts." He knew she prided
herself on her strength, and he took no credit to himself for standing
where she fell.

It was precisely as if they were alone together; the storm seemed to
wall them in, and his manner was more intimate than ever before. It
was in very truth the first time they had been out together, and also
it was the only time he had assumed any physical care of her. He had
never asserted his greater muscular power and mastery of material
things, and she was amazed to see that his lethargy was only a mood.
He could be alert and agile at need. It made his cynicism appear to be
a moo