She could not believe that he had gone from her like this. She had read of
people being blotted out in such fashion; but that Fate should bear down
upon her household, that the lightning should strike within the borders of
her garden, seemed impossible. Like everyone else, she never dreamed that a
great tragedy could come to her. Just as we never think of ourselves as
meeting with a street accident, so she never thought of this catastrophe.
Yet there he lay, the symbol of that inexorable terror that moves through
the world.
She went over quietly to a chair near the table and sat down. She hid her
face in her hands. She did not wish to see that silent form again; yet he
had been her husband, and her place, she knew, was by his side, in death
even more than in life. How the world had changed for her in this little
hour!
She had come into the room just as Pancho was finishing his talk with
Gilbert; and she caught the force of his words. Now she heard him saying
something else.
"And now, what you say? You all 'appy, eh?"
Gilbert was still too dazed to understand. "You've killed him!" was all he
could utter.
"I 'ave," the bandit answered. "You need not thank me.
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