but for her
they were out of reach. She might not share with him the very least of
them. It seemed that behind and through the glare of this wintry noonday
in the heart of the woods there brooded another universe of life and
passion, for her all unexpressed. The silence veiled it, the stillness
hid it; but he moved with it all and understood. His love interpreted
it.

She rose to her feet, tottered feebly, and collapsed again upon the
moss. Yet for herself she felt no terror; no little personal fear could
touch her whose anguish and deep longing streamed all out to him whom
she so bravely loved. In this time of utter self-forgetfulness, when she
realized that the battle was hopeless, thinking she had lost even her
God, she found Him again quite close beside her like a little Presence
in this terrible heart of the hostile Forest. But at first she did not
recognize that He was there; she did not know Him in that strangely
unacceptable guise. For He stood so very close, so very intimate, so
very sweet and comforting, and yet so hard to understand--as
Resignation.

Once more she struggled to her feet, and this time turned successfully
and slowly made her way along the mossy glade by which she came. And at
first she marveled, though only for a moment, at the ease with which she
found the path. For a moment only, because almost at once she saw the
truth. The trees were glad that she should go. They helped her on her
way. The Forest did not want her.

The tide was coming in, indeed, yet not for her.

And so, in another of those flashes of clear-vision that of late had
lifted life above the normal level, she saw and understood the whole
terrible thing complete.

Till now, though unexpressed in thought or language, her fear had been
that the woods her husband loved would somehow take him from her--to
merge his life in theirs--even to kill him on some mysterious way. This
time she saw her deep mistake, and so seeing, let in upon herself the
fuller agony of horror. For their jealousy was not the petty jealousy of
animals or humans. They wanted him because they loved him, but they did
_ not_ want him dead. Full charged with his splendid life and enthusiasm
they wanted him. They wanted him--alive.

It was she who stood in their way, and it was she whom they intended to
remove.

This was what brought the sense of abject helplessness. She stood upon
the sands against an entire ocean slowly rolling in against her. For, as
al