Outdoors, in the house, there was not a sound.

She felt as if she must not, could not breathe.

The silence, like a stealthy hand, lifted her from her chair, drew her tiptoeing and breathless toward the room in which her father was sitting.

She paused at its threshold, looked.

There was Hiram, in his chair by the window, bolt upright, eyes open and gazing into the infinite.