“But you had no pain!”
“Yes, I had some—not expressed, nor quite definite. Difficult to explain until experienced. Words do not convey the sensation. Not quite fear, not quite pain, but a strange moment of suffering. Then consciousness again, beauty, force, perfectly clear perceptions, but a period of something approaching incredulity.” I mentioned Frederick’s statement that he had been “dazed by the bigness of it,” and Mr. Bruce went on. “That’s it. The bigness of it is indescribable, and so extraordinarily lovely and high that it is not readily realized or grasped.”
She said she had dreaded to have him go alone, and asked whether some one met him.
“Yes, we are very tenderly received. There is always a part of one’s own purpose waiting.”
“Have you seen Jack?”
“Yes; he is still a little bewildered, but will soon be in fighting trim again.” This young man had been killed in an accident.
“‘In fighting trim’!” she repeated. “How funny!”
“No, it isn’t funny. We fight perpetually, and love it. It is a wonderful thing to fight with the great forces, and to know why. Most of those in your life fight in confusion and doubt, and suffer. But here we unite ourselves to a definite and constructive purpose, and the fight is glorious.”
“Do you see Granny?”
“No. She has gone on to a life beyond ours. She will come back, some day, and I will see her.”