ossed, pale as wax, with a crucifix between
them; and those great black eyebrows beyond, below which lay the double
reverse curve of the lashes. It seemed as if she was watching them both,
as her manner had been in life, with a tranquil cynicism.

And was she at peace, thought Beatrice, as she had told her daughter
just now? Was it possible to believe that that stormy, vicious spirit
had been quieted so suddenly? And yet that would be no greater miracle
than that which death had wrought to the body. If the one was so still,
why not the other? At least she had asked pardon of her husband for
those years of alienation; she had demanded the sacraments of the
Church!

Beatrice bowed her head, and prayed for the departed soul.

* * * * *

She was disturbed by the soft opening of a door, and lifted her eyes to
see Ralph stand a moment by the head of the bed, before he sank on his
knees. She could watch every detail of his face in the candlelight; his
thin tight lips, his heavy eyebrows so like his mother's, his curved
nostrils, the clean sharp line of his jaw.

She found herself analysing his processes of thought. His mother had
been the one member of his family with whom he had had sympathy; they
understood one another, these two bitter souls, as no one else did,
except perhaps Beatrice herself. How aloof they had stood from all
ordinary affections; how keen must have been their dual loneliness! And
what did this snapped thread mean to him now? To what, in his opinion,
did the broken end lead that had passed out from the visible world to
the invisible? Did he think that all was over, and that the one soul
that had understood his own had passed like a candle flame into the
dark? And she too--was she crying for her son, a thin soundless sobbing
in the world beyond sight? Above all, did he understand how alone he was
now--how utterly, eternally alone, unless he turned his course?

A great well of pity broke up and surged in her heart, flooding her eyes
with tears, as she looked at the living son and the dead mother; and she
dropped her head on her hands again, and prayed for his soul as well as
for hers.

* * * * *

It was a very strange atmosphere in the house during the day or two that
passed before the funeral. The household met at meals and in the parlour
and chapel, but seldom at other times. Ralph was almost invisible; and
silent when he appeared. Ther