als; that there was always the
risk of a laden machine being suddenly surrounded by fire, for many
houses were ignited by the sparks, and, in that wooden district down
there, burned like tinder. Perhaps, like Victoria, she was too sure of
his destiny; perhaps the picture of the future with him that she had
conceived refused to alter its lines; or it may be that there was no
place in the impersonal arrangement of her faculties the double
catastrophe had effected, for fear; or for anything beyond the
impressions of the moment. Her mind worked on mechanically. She was
determined to remain as long as there was a possibility of Gwynne's
returning for food or care. But the soul beneath was possessed by an
absolute calm. She had the sense of having been taken into partnership
with nature that morning; so sudden and personal had been that assault,
from which she yet had issued unscathed. She felt that everything that
would follow in life, excepting only her love for Gwynne, would be too
petty to regard more seriously than the daily meals. Not that she had
more than a bare mental appreciation of the phases of love at the
moment; but it possessed her and it was infinite.

She sat motionless until nearly two o'clock and then went up to her room
and lay down. It was not possible to sleep for more than a few moments
at a time, for the detonations were almost incessant, but she forced
herself to rest, not knowing what work the morrow might have in store.
When she finally rose and looked out of her window she saw that the fire
was coming up the hills.

XV

She barely touched the breakfast prepared by the methodical Sugihara,
who had already buried the silver, and cut the pictures from their
frames, rolled, and tied them securely.

"It is only a question of a few hours," he said. "The dynamiting so far
has done more harm than good. They take a house at a time instead of a
block, and as it falls apart it ignites another on the opposite side of
the street. The army doesn't like to interfere, and the mayor has too
long been obsequious to capital. Mr. Clatt is still there with the
launch behind him. I took him down his breakfast some time ago. He told
me to tell you that he'd 'got his job cut out for him now, as the Dagos
were beginning to leave Telegraph Hill.'"

Isabel had one or two moments of panic as she watched those waves of
flame beat up the hill, and pictured them raging up the eastern slopes
as well; but the panic p