, upon the counterpane, and rose from his chair, and walked
across to the window. The windows were uncurtained, and showed the moon,
and a long silver pathway upon the surface of the waves.

"Why," he said, in his ordinary tone of voice, "look at the moon.
There's a halo round the moon. We shall have rain to-morrow."

The arms, whether they were the arms of man or of woman, were round him
again; they were pushing him gently towards the door. He turned of his
own accord and walked steadily in advance of the arms, conscious of
a little amusement at the strange way in which people behaved merely
because some one was dead. He would go if they wished it, but nothing
they could do would disturb his happiness.

As he saw the passage outside the room, and the table with the cups and
the plates, it suddenly came over him that here was a world in which he
would never see Rachel again.

"Rachel! Rachel!" he shrieked, trying to rush back to her. But they
prevented him, and pushed him down the passage and into a bedroom far
from her room. Downstairs they could hear the thud of his feet on the
floor, as he struggled to break free; and twice they heard him shout,
"Rachel, Rachel!"

Chapter XXVI

For two or three hours longer the moon poured its light through the
empty air. Unbroken by clouds it fell straightly, and lay almost like
a chill white frost over the sea and the earth. During these hours the
silence was not broken, and the only movement was caused by the movement
of trees and branches which stirred slightly, and then the shadows that
lay across the white spaces of the land moved too. In this profound
silence one sound only was audible, the sound of a slight but continuous
breathing which never ceased, although it never rose and never fell. It
continued after the birds had begun to flutter from branch to branch,
and could be heard behind the first thin notes of their voices. It
continued all through the hours when the east whitened, and grew red,
and a faint blue tinged the sky, but when the sun rose it ceased, and
gave place to other sounds.

The first sounds that were heard were little inarticulate cries, the
cries, it seemed, of children or of the very poor, of people who were
very weak or in pain. But when the sun was above the horizon, the air
which had been thin and pale grew every moment richer and warmer, and
the sounds of life became bolder and more full of courage and authority.
By degrees the smoke