He looked up, and the whole night had changed. The moon rode high, and was nearly at the full. The skies were spangled with thousands on thousands of glittering stars. He thrust out his head and looked upward into the vast blue of the night Out from the stainless sky fell one warm, heavy drop full on his upturned forehead. To his worn thoughts it was like an angel’s tear. He nestled beside the open window, and gazed from star to star, seeming idly to trace an intricate winding road of blue amongst them. Peace came back to him, an empty peace, no more than a mental languor. He slept at last, and awoke stiff and chill to find the light of morning creeping along a clouded east.
All that day one purpose was present to his mind. When the day’s work was over and he was free, he dressed and walked into the street He roamed up and down it from end to end, and several times he diverged from it to pace the road in which Norah MacMulty lived, and to linger about the house into which he had helped her. He had something to say to Norah MacMulty, but he caught no sight of her. He went home, and to bed. Next evening he paced the streets again. There was still no sign of her, but he encountered the assistant, who nodded to him in passing. Paul stopped him.
‘I beg your pardon,’ he said. ‘Is there any news of that poor woman?’
‘Yes,’ said the assistant. ‘She’s in for a touch of erysipelas. They kept her at the Infirmary to-day. If they’d left her at large she’d have killed herself.’
‘How?’ said Paul.
‘Drink,’ returned the assistant, and went his own way.
So Paul ceased his wanderings for a while, and a fortnight had passed before he saw the woman again.
It was a Sunday afternoon, and he was off for his customary lonely ramble. Armstrong always went upstairs for a nap after Sunday’s dinner, and Paul was left without companionship.
The woman was a mile away from her home, and was sitting on the lower steps of a stile by the side of the highway. She was tidily attired, and sober. Her recent illness had left a pensive look upon her face.
‘You’re better?’ said Paul, stopping in front of her.