ossible for him to believe that
even Celie Armin's beauty had roused the desire for possession among
them.

His attention turned to the gathering of the storm. The amazing
swiftness with which the gray day was turning into the dark gloom of
night fascinated him and he almost called to Celie that she might look
upon the phenomenon with him. It was piling in from the vast Barrens to
the north and east and for a time it was accompanied by a stillness
that was oppressive. He could no longer distinguish a movement in the
tops of the cedars and banskian pine beyond the corral. In the corral
itself he caught now and then the shadowy, flitting movement of the
wolves. He did not hear Celie when she came out of her room. So
intently was he straining his eyes to penetrate the thickening pall of
gloom that he was unconscious of her presence until she stood close at
his side. There was something in the awesome darkening of the world
that brought them closer in that moment, and without speaking Philip
found her hand and held it in his own. They heard then a low whispering
sound--a sound that came creeping up out of the end of the world like a
living thing; a whisper so vast that, after a little, it seemed to fill
the universe, growing louder and louder until it was no longer a
whisper but a moaning, shrieking wail. It was appalling as the first
blast of it swept over the cabin. No other place in the world is there
storm like the storm that sweeps over the Great Barren; no other place
in the world where storm is filled with such a moaning, shrieking
tumult of VOICE. It was not new to Philip. He had heard it when it
seemed to him that ten thousand little children were crying under the
rolling and twisting onrush of the clouds; he had heard it when it
seemed to him the darkness was filled with an army of laughing,
shrieking madmen--storm out of which rose piercing human shrieks and
the sobbing grief of women's voices. It had driven people mad. Through
the long dark night of winter, when for five months they caught no
glimpse of the sun, even the little brown Eskimos went keskwao and
destroyed themselves because of the madness that was in that storm.

And now it swept over the cabin, and in Celie's throat there rose a
little sob. So swiftly had darkness gathered that Philip could no
longer see her, except where her face made a pale shadow in the gloom,
but he could feel the tremble of her body against him. Was it only this
morning that