"And knowing one woman—properly or improperly—won't help you to understand another. I never knew there was so much in her."
"She didn't know it herself. She used to say it wasn't in her. It was the most mysterious thing I ever saw."
It was his turn to shelter himself behind Freda's gift. He piled up words, and his mind cowered behind them, thinking no thought, seeing nothing but Freda's dead face with its shut eyes.
"What was it?" he said. "Where did it come from?"
"It came," said Mrs. Dysart, "from somewhere deep down in her heart, a part of her that had only one chance to show itself." She rose and delivered herself of all her fire. "There was something in Freda infinitely greater, infinitely more beautiful, than her gift. It showed itself only once in her life. When it couldn't show itself any more the gift left her. We can't account for it."
He followed her to the door. She pressed his hand as she said good-bye to him, and he saw that there were tears in her eyes.
"I told you," she said, "to do all you could for her. She knew that you had done—all you could."
He bowed his head to her rebuke.
VII
Upstairs Julia was waiting for him. Her pale face turned to him as he came in.