ossed into the wild playground of the storm, helpless and
furious shuttle-cocks, yelling their protests with furious energy? The
idea that she too might have been wicked once thrilled Magdalena
unexpectedly: she had had a few sudden brief lapses into primal impulse,
accompanied by a certain exaltation of mind. As she recalled them the
rest of her life seemed flat by comparison, and unburdened with meaning;
something buried, unsuspected, left over from another existence, shook
itself and made as if to leap to those doomed wretches, heavy with
memories, buffeting each other on the tides of the storm.

A crash brought her upright. It had been preceded by a curious bumping
along the front of the house. She realised in a moment what it meant:
the flag-pole had snapped and been hurled to the ground. She thought of
her father's dismay, and shuddered slightly; she was in a mood to greet
omens hospitably.

Suddenly her eyes fixed themselves expandingly upon the door. She was
cast in a heroic mould; but the storm and the vagaries of her
imagination had unnerved her, and she shook violently as the knob was
softly turned and the door moved forward with significant care. Had her
father gone suddenly mad? The possibility had crossed her mind more than
once. She would lock her door hereafter.

"What is it?" she faltered.

The door was pushed open abruptly. Her uncle stood there. For a moment
she thought it was his ghost. The dim light of the hall shone on a
ghastly face, and he wore a long gown of grey flannel. He held one hand
pressed against his chest. In another second she heard the rattling of
his breath. She sprang out of bed and ran to him.

"I am going to die," Mr. Polk said. "Telegraph and ask her to come."

She led him to his room, roused her father and mother, telephoned for
the doctor and a messenger boy, then went to her room, dressed, and
wrote the telegram. She had little time to think, but the approach of
death made her hands shake a little, and lent an added significance to
the horrid sounds without. Death had been a mere name before these last
few moments; he suddenly became an actual presence stalking the storm.

The bell rang. She went down to the door herself. It was the messenger
boy. She gave him the telegram to despatch, and told him to return and
to remain on duty all night. Then she went to her uncle's room. Her
mother and a dishevelled maid were compounding mustard plasters and
heating water. Her fathe