She drew back when she recognized him, as though another terrible misfortune had befallen her.
"You!" she whispered. "How came you here?"
"They told me you were in trouble and I came at once," he answered tenderly. "My poor little girl, is there nothing that I can do for you?"
"Nothing! nothing, but to leave me alone! That is all, that is all!"
She shivered horribly and arose, pacing up and down the floor, her great wild eyes restlessly roving from one object to another.
He watched her for a few moments, fascinated by the peculiar magnetism of her sufferings, then arose, and laying his arm about her shoulders, he took her hand. There was nothing impertinent in his act, only the sincere interest of one whose heart is deeply touched.
"Leonie," he said, gently, "let me do something to help you bear your terrible sorrow. It breaks my heart to see you like this while I sit helplessly by. You must not grieve so. They tell me he was old. Think, dear! He has borne his burden of life, and perhaps now is happy and at peace with God. You could not expect to keep him with you always. Are you not a little selfish, dear? Try to think of it as the will of God, and——"
"Oh, I can't!" she interrupted, her teeth chattering under her fearful suffering; "he was all on earth I had. In the whole world there is no human being left for me. I am as much alone as though my little craft rocked in mid-ocean with only the waves surrounding me. Oh, God! You cannot think what that means until you have been left so. I have nothing left me but suffering and——"
She had meant to say disgrace, but the word was drowned in a horrible groan. She fell into a chair, and holding to the back buried her face upon her arm. Lynde Pyne stood beside her. He laid his hand upon her bowed head, and smoothed the soft hair caressingly.
The expression of his face was one of keenest pain.