"
His head sank upon his outstretched arm. As for me, I stood a
minute with set lips and clenched hands, and then I turned and
went out of the room and down the stair and out into the street. In
the dust beneath the window lay my dagger. I picked it up,
sheathed it, and went my way.
ILLUSTRATION
The street was very quiet. All windows and doors were closed and
barred; not a soul was there to trouble me with look or speech. The
yelling from the forest had ceased; only the keen wind blew, and
brought from the Esperance upon the river a sound of singing. The
sea was the home of the men upon her decks, and their hearts
dwelt not in this port; they could sing while the smoke went up
from our homes and the dead lay across the thresholds.
I went on through the sunshine and the stillness to the minister's
house. The trees in the garden were bare, the flowers dead. The
door was not barred. I entered the house and went into the great
room and flung the heavy shutters wide, then stood and looked
about me. Naught was changed; it was as we had left it that wild
November night. Even the mirror which, one other night, had
shown me Diccon still hung upon the wall. Master Bucke had been
seldom at home, perhaps, or was feeble and careless of altering
matters. All was as though we had been but an hour gone, save that
no fire burned upon the hearth.
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