The miracle of impossible happiness had been worked for him. It confused
me like a dazzle of fireworks. I turned my back and bowed my head,
waiting for him to speak again or to leave me out, as he saw fit.

Extreme joy may be very silent in those who have waited long, for I did
not hear a cry or a spoken word. Presently I dared to look, and was
not surprised to find myself alone. The evergreen-clothed amphitheatre
behind had many paths which would instantly hide climbers from view.
The blue man and the woman with floating hair knew these heights well. I
thought of the pitfall, and sat watching with back-tilted head, anxious
to warn them if they stirred foliage near where that fatal trap was
said to lurk. But the steep forest gave no sign or sound from its mossy
depths.

I sat still a long time in a trance of the senses, like that which
follows a drama whose spell you would not break. Masts and cross-trees
of ships, were banded by ribbons of smoke blowing back from the steamers
which towed them in lines up or down the straits.

Towards sunset there was a faint blush above the steel-blue waters,
which at their edge reflected the blush. Then mist closed in. The sky
became ribbed with horizontal bars, so that the earth was pent like a
heart within the hollow of some vast skeleton.

I was about to climb down from my rock when two young men passed by,
the first strollers I had noticed since the blue man's exit. They rapped
stones out of the way with their canes, and pushed the caps back from
their youthful faces, talking rapidly in excitement.

"When did it happen?"

"About four o'clock. You were off at the golf links."

"Was she killed instantly?"

"I think so. I think she never knew what hurt her after seeing the
horses plunge and the carriage go over. I was walking my wheel down-hill
just behind and I didn't hear her scream. The driver said he lost the
brake; and he's a pretty spectacle now, for he landed on his head. It
was that beautiful old lady with the fly-away hair that we saw arrive
from this morning's boat while we were sitting out smoking, you
remember."

"Not that one!"

"That was the woman. Had a black maid with her. She's a Southerner. I
looked on the register."

The other young fellow whistled.

"I'm glad I was at the links and didn't see it. She was a stunning
woman."

Dusk stalked grimly down from eastern heights and blurred the water
earlier than on rose-colored evenings, making the hom