" he thought, "has no real cause to
feel small, for all their awful majesty."

He was standing near the log, the long line of which was trailing in
the ocean. The great ship was quivering under his feet. From the two
smoke-stacks the wind was pressing the smoke down over the waves, and a
melancholy procession of figures, widows in long crepe veils, wringing
their hands in mute grief, drifted away backward, as if into the twilight
gloom of eternal damnation. He heard the talking of the passengers, and
represented to himself all that was united within the walls of that
immense house, hurrying forward restlessly--how much hunting, fleeing,
hoping, fearing. And in his soul, responding to the universal miracle,
arose the great unanswered questions that seek to penetrate to the dark
meaning of existence: "Why?" "What for?"

XIII

He began to pace the deck again without noticing that he drew near
Ingigerd Hahlstroem.

"You are wanted," a voice behind him suddenly announced. Seeing how he
started, Doctor Wilhelm excused himself.

"You were dreaming; you are a dreamer," Mara called. "Come over here.
I don't like these stupid men."

The six or eight gentlemen in attendance, with the exception of
Achleitner, laughed and withdrew with a humorous show of great obedience.

"Why do you stay here, Achleitner?" Thus the faithful canine received his
dismissal.

Frederick saw how the men withdrew together in groups at a little
distance, whispering as they usually do when having sport with a pretty
woman who is not exactly a prude; and it was with some shame, at any
rate, with expressed repugnance that he took the stool still warm from
Achleitner's body. Mara began to rhapsodise about nature.

"Isn't everything prettiest when the sun goes down? I think it's fun--at
least I like it," she quickly substituted, when Frederick made a wry face
at the remark. She spoke in sentences that all began with "I don't like,"
or "I despise," or "I do detest." In the face of that vast cosmic drama
unfolding itself before her senses, she sat wholly unmoved and
unsympathetic, displaying the overweening arrogance of a spoiled child.
Frederick wanted to jump up, but remained where he was, pulling nervously
at the end of his moustache, while his face assumed a stiff, mocking
expression. Mara noticed it, and was visibly upset by this unusual form
of homage.

Frederick had one of those idealistic heads set on broad shoulders
characteristic of