When Barnard, and Anne, and Dick went on, Barnard thought in his dream
that he and Anne held Dick’s hands more tightly than before. And when,
presently, he saw another girl, walking alone upon a distant path, he
caught Anne’s eye behind Dick’s back, and pointed this girl out to her.
Then he and Anne conspired against their son; they left the broad path
for another, narrower. They pointed out to Dick the wonders of the way,
and talked eagerly to him, and caressed him.
But after a time, they saw that the girl’s path had curved to follow
them; and at length, while they spoke together, Dick turned to look
back, and his eyes met the eyes of the girl....
X
Thereafter Barnard and Anne moved alone together; and though Barnard, in
his dream, felt Anne’s hand in his, his heart ached with loneliness.
Anne smiled bravely beside him, but her smile was worse than tears.
They seemed to have lost their path. They no longer went confidently
along a broad way, but wandered aimlessly this way and that. They tried
new paths that led nowhere; and there were times when they stood still,
clinging each to each.
The Threat above them, Barnard saw, was floating lower.
In his dream, Barnard thought that he and Anne came to a path which
followed the brink of a great precipice. They walked that way. His arm
was about her, hers clasped him. She was talking very gaily; she had
never been so beautiful.
Barnard forgot The Threat for a moment; and when uneasy recollection
returned to him, and his eyes sought for it, he saw that the cloudlike
thing had descended till it rode level with them, and at one side, above
the abyss at their left hand. It hung there, following them as they
followed the brink of the precipice.
He was afraid, but he tried to tell himself this was a victory, that The
Threat was leaving them; and he pointed it out to Anne. In his dream, he
thought she looked up to him, and he saw pity in her eyes, and so he was
more afraid than before.
He watched the cloudy thing more closely; and presently he saw that it
was drifting toward them. So he caught Anne’s hand, and hurried her
forward. She ran with him, as though to humor him; and she was speaking
comfortingly to him as they ran.
The Cloud moved swiftly closer till it touched Anne. And her steps
faltered. He could no longer persuade her to run. He could only throw
his arms about her; and in his dream he shouted defiance at The Threat.
Then he pleaded with it....
Anne was being drawn from his arms. It was not that she was torn away;
it was just that he could no longer hold her. The solid substance of
her, to which he clung, melted in his arms. He tore off his coat and
wrapped it about her, but still she slipped away like sand through the
fingers.
He begged; and her face came toward him, and her lips touched his. Her
fingers rested for an instant on his eyelids.
When they were lifted, and he opened his eyes again, Anne was gone.
He threw himself toward the brink of that precipice to follow her; but
the chasm had disappeared. Where it had been, there was only a sweet
meadow, mockingly beautiful in the sun.
He looked about him. All the world was beautiful as ice.