am of
fear. Perrine, who had been kneeling before her lover binding the fresh
bandages on his wounded arm, paused in her occupation, trembling from
head to foot. Gabriel looked toward the window; his experience told him
what must be the hurricane fury of that blast of wind out at sea, and
he sighed bitterly as he murmured to himself, "God help them both--man's
help will be as nothing to them now!"

"Gabriel!" cried the voice from the bed in altered tones--very faint and
trembling.

He did not hear or did not attend to the old man. He was trying to
soothe and encourage the young girl at his feet.

"Don't be frightened, love," he said, kissing her very gently and
tenderly on the forehead. "You are as safe here as anywhere. Was I not
right in saying that it would be madness to attempt taking you back to
the farmhouse this evening? You can sleep in that room, Perrine, when
you are tired--you can sleep with the two girls."

"Gabriel! brother Gabriel!" cried one of the children. "Oh, look at
grandfather!"

Gabriel ran to the bedside. The old man had raised himself into a
sitting position; his eyes were dilated, his whole face was rigid with
terror, his hands were stretched out convulsively toward his grandson.
"The White Women!" he screamed. "The White Women; the grave-diggers of
the drowned are out on the sea!"

The children, with cries of terror, flung themselves into Perrine's
arms; even Gabriel uttered an exclamation of horror, and started back
from the bedside.

Still the old man reiterated, "The White Women! The White Women! Open
the door, Gabriel! look-out westward, where the ebb-tide has left the
sand dry. You'll see them bright as lightning in the darkness, mighty
as the angels in stature, sweeping like the wind over the sea, in their
long white garments, with their white hair trailing far behind them!
Open the door, Gabriel! You'll see them stop and hover over the place
where your father and your brother have been drowned; you'll see them
come on till they reach the sand, you'll see them dig in it with their
naked feet and beckon awfully to the raging sea to give up its dead.
Open the door, Gabriel--or, though it should be the death of me, I will
get up and open it myself!"

Gabriel's face whitened even to his lips, but he made a sign that he
would obey. It required the exertion of his whole strength to keep the
door open against the wind while he looked out.

"Do you see them, grandson Gabriel? Speak th