und it. He put the little thing on one hand in his breast, and stepped
out rapidly as before.

The rain was now steady; from every tree a fountain poured. So cool and
easy had his mind become that he was speculating on what kind of shelter
the birds could find, and how the butterflies and moths saved their
coloured wings from washing. Folded close they might hang under a leaf,
he thought. Lovingly he looked into the dripping darkness of the coverts
on each side, as one of their children. He was next musing on a strange
sensation he experienced. It ran up one arm with an indescribable
thrill, but communicated nothing to his heart. It was purely physical,
ceased for a time, and recommenced, till he had it all through his
blood, wonderfully thrilling. He grew aware that the little thing he
carried in his breast was licking his hand there. The small rough tongue
going over and over the palm of his hand produced the strange sensation
he felt. Now that he knew the cause, the marvel ended; but now that he
knew the cause, his heart was touched and made more of it. The gentle
scraping continued without intermission as on he walked. What did it say
to him? Human tongue could not have said so much just then.

A pale grey light on the skirts of the flying tempest displayed the
dawn. Richard was walking hurriedly. The green drenched weeds lay all
about in his path, bent thick, and the forest drooped glimmeringly.
Impelled as a man who feels a revelation mounting obscurely to his
brain, Richard was passing one of those little forest-chapels, hung with
votive wreaths, where the peasant halts to kneel and pray. Cold, still,
in the twilight it stood, rain-drops pattering round it. He looked
within, and saw the Virgin holding her Child. He moved by. But not many
steps had he gone ere his strength went out of him, and he shuddered.
What was it? He asked not. He was in other hands. Vivid as lightning the
Spirit of Life illumined him. He felt in his heart the cry of his child,
his darling's touch. With shut eyes he saw them both. They drew him from
the depths; they led him a blind and tottering man. And as they led him
he had a sense of purification so sweet he shuddered again and again.

When he looked out from his trance on the breathing world, the small
birds hopped and chirped: warm fresh sunlight was over all the hills. He
was on the edge of the forest, entering a plain clothed with ripe corn
under a spacious morning sky.

CHA