nd silently rolled down her cheeks. The
stillness in that room, chosen for remoteness, was like the stillness
of a tomb, and, as in a tomb, there was no outlook on the world, for the
glass of the skylight was opaque.

That deathly stillness settled round her heart; her eyes fixed
themselves on the skylight, as though beseeching it to break and let
in sound. A cat, making a pilgrimage from roof to roof, the four dark
moving spots of its paws, the faint blur of its body, was all she saw.
And suddenly, unable to bear it any longer, she cried:

"Oh, George, speak to me! Don't put me away from you like this!"

George answered:

"What do you want me to say, Mother?"

"Nothing--only----"

And falling on her knees beside her son, she pulled his head down
against her breast, and stayed rocking herself to and fro, silently
shifting closer till she could feel his head lie comfortably; so, she
had his face against her heart, and she could not bear to let it go. Her
knees hurt her on the boarded floor, her back and all her body ached;
but not for worlds would she relax an inch, believing that she could
comfort him with her pain, and her tears fell on his neck. When at last
he drew his face away she sank down on the floor, and could not rise,
but her fingers felt that the bosom of her dress was wet. He said
hoarsely:

"It's all right, Mother; you needn't worry!"

For no reward would she have looked at him just then, but with a deeper
certainty than reason she knew that he was safe.

Stealthily on the sloping skylight the cat retraced her steps, its four
paws dark moving spots, its body a faint blur.

Mrs. Pendyce rose.

"I won't stay now, darling. May I use your glass?"

Standing before that mirror, smoothing back her hair, passing her
handkerchief over her cheeks and eyes and lips, she thought:

'That woman has stood here! That woman has smoothed her hair, looking
in this glass, and wiped his kisses from her cheeks! May God give to her
the pain that she has given to my son!'

But when she had wished that wish she shivered.

She turned to George at the door with a smile that seemed to say:

'It's no good to weep, or try and tell you what is in my heart, and so,
you see, I'm smiling. Please smile, too, so as to comfort me a little.'

George put a small paper parcel in her hand and tried to smile.

Mrs. Pendyce went quickly out. Bewildered by the sunlight, she did not
look at this parcel till she was beyond the ou