Katherine read the note in her room. Her eyes blurred with sudden tears.
Now that Powell had gone out of her life, thoughts that she had held in
restraint, rushed across her like angry animals breaking their leashes.
She saw with unblinded eyes the hideousness of her life, the
hopelessness of the future, for during the past few days Glendon had
started again to drink.
The note trembled in her fingers, a tear dropped on it and her heart was
sick with despair. She understood at last the meaning of the courage,
the peace that had come into her life, and she knew that she could go on
to the end that she might purify her love for Powell, by the flame of
sacrifice.
As the note blazed up in the fireplace, then died to a quivering grey
mass, she lifted her face to the tall peaks that bent over the canyon,
and their strength seemed to reach out to her.