For a long time the strong man was shaken with sobs, so that it seemed as if they would kill him. After that a kind of exaltation possessed him and he saw visions of her. Wherever he looked he saw her coming to him thro the young trees.
“She is not dead,” he cried, “she is not dead.”
But the corpse at his feet was now icy cold.
Then he seemed to see her going thro a strange forest alone, and she was without weapons or food. He called to her, but she only shook her head and fell to the ground.
“She is starving,” he cried.
But she staggered to her feet and went on. And now she was crossing an arid plain, but upon the other side were the fires of a strange tribe, and in the mouths of all the caves meat was hanging.
The people beckoned to her and called and she stretched out her arms to them, but it seemed impossible that she should reach them, so slowly she went and so wearily she dragged her feet.
But the vision went out, and the brook was loud in his ears.