ng chaos. Out of it came blasts
that combed through my disheveled hair and drove fine dust into my eyes.
But of the messenger of death, who had peered in the window for a
moment, and then withdrawn, nothing could be seen.

I turned back, feeling suddenly, for the first time, the emptiness of
body which occurs, perhaps in sympathy with the emptiness of death, and
as I turned, I found myself in the position of the thing that had looked
in at us. The stare of the Judge was still fixed upon that spot, so that
for a moment I received the impression that he was gazing at me. The dog
still whined softly, cowering close to the floor.

I went to the middle of the room: I stood there gathering my wits. I
heard a clock strike somewhere in the kitchen region below, from outside
the window came the rattle of some conveyance, louder, louder, softer,
softer. A passing boy whistled; I heard Julianna's step above me; I
heard the dog licking his paws unconcernedly; I heard the curtains flap
in the wind that filled the room; and finally its ironical little scream
as it lifted from the desk the last opinion the Judge ever wrote and
scattered the loose sheets all over the room. It brought in the dank
smell of the garden.

"I must tell her," I said aloud, and the old dog, senses dulled by age,
wagged his tail. "I must tell her," I repeated, and toiled up the soft,
carpeted stairs.

She was waiting for me in her own room, standing under the soft light
from a hanging, well-shaded, electric lamp. I see her there, clearly,
with the smile fading from her face as she read my own. Indeed, it was
not necessary for me to speak; before I had gathered courage to do so, I
saw her bosom swell with a long breath. She inhaled it jerkily, as one
who is suddenly shocked with a deluge of icy water. I saw the color fade
as the smile had faded before it, and when I had nodded to indicate that
she had guessed the truth, stepped forward, fearing that she would sway
off her feet.

"No, Jerry," she said, with her hands held tight at her sides. "I am
all right. I had expected this some day soon. It is hard to believe, but
has not come without warning. His heart--his great, loving
heart--had--worn out. I do not want you to come with me. I am going
down--alone."

I moved my dry tongue in my mouth: a word of the strange circumstance of
his death was there. But her courage--her steady body, her squared
shoulders, her firm mouth, her eyes which showed her agony, b