Its sparkling purity seemed to reach and still the throbbing misery at her heart.

In some fashion it brought her peace.
She would have prayed, but she felt she had no prayer to offer.

She had no favour to ask for herself, and her world was quite empty now.
She had no one in her heart for whom to pray.
Yet for awhile she knelt dumb among the lifeless stones, her face hidden, her thoughts with the father whose loss she had scarcely begun to realise.

It might be that God would understand and pity her silence, she thought drearily to herself.
The rush of the water drowned all sound but its own, and the memory of Nick, waiting above, faded from her consciousness like a dream.

Her brain felt numb and heavy still.