I only knew the schoolbooks said he "died in the wilderness, of a broken heart.""More than him has done that," said Antonia sadly, and the girls murmured assent.

There was about Alexandra something of the impervious calm of the fatalist, always disconcerting to very young people, who cannot feel that the heart lives at all unless it is still at the mercy of storms; unless its strings can scream to the touch of pain.

"More than him has done that," said Antonia sadly, and the girls murmured assent.

The heart, when it is too much alive, aches for that brown earth, and ecstasy has no fear of death.