"My dear," he said, his voice very low, "your father died last night--before we left the fort." At her cry of agony he started up, and in a second he was on his knees by her side and had gathered her to him as though she had been a little child in need of comfort.

She did not shrink from him in her extremity.

The blow had been too sudden, too overwhelming.

It blotted out all lesser sensibilities.

In those first terrible moments she did not think of Nick at all, was scarcely conscious of his presence, though she vaguely felt the comfort of his arms.
And he, holding her fast against his breast, found no consolation, no word of any sort wherewith to soothe her.