It was cold, but it did not benumb.

Unseen and noiseless it came.
It smote no sense in me, yet I knew it rising.

I saw it lift at last and float her.

Gently it bore her, unable to resist, and left rather than laid her on the settle.

Then it sank swiftly away.
The strife of thought, accusing and excusing, began afresh, and gathered fierceness.