It was firm, almost stiff, yet not absolutely without a certain hint of flexibility.
"The appalling wonder of it consumed me; fear, incredulity, terror, apathy succeeded each other; then slowly a fierce shrinking happiness swept me in every fiber.
"This marvelous death, this triumph of beauty over death, was mine.
Never again should she lie here alone through the solitudes of night and day; never again should the dignity of Death lack the tribute demanded of Life.

Here was the appointed watcher--I, who had found her alone in the wastes of the world--all alone on the outermost edges of the world--a child, dead and unguarded.

And standing there beside her I knew that I should never love again." He straightened up, stretching out his arm: "I did not intend to carry her away to what is known as Christian burial.

How could I consign her to darkness again, with all its dreadful mockery of marble, all its awful emblems?
"This lovely stranger was to be my guest forever.

The living should be near her while she slept so sweetly her slumber through the centuries; she should have warmth, and soft hangings and sunlight and flowers; and her unconscious ears should be filled with the pleasant stir of living things.