It was the far younger life--young, and yet how old in suffering!--which had thus suddenly and unexpectedly come to an end.
The earl was found dead in his bed, in his customary attitude of repose, just as Malcolm always placed him, and left him till the morning.

His eyes were wide open, so that he could not have died in his sleep.

But how, at what hour, or in what manner he had died--whether the summons had been slow or sudden, whether he had tried to call assistance and failed, or whether, calling no one and troubling no one, his fearless soul had passed, and chosen to pass thus solitary unto its God, none ever knew or ever could know, and it was all the same now.
He died as he had lived, quite alone.

But it did not seem to have been a painful death, for the expression of his features was peaceful, and they had already settled down into that mysteriously beautiful death-smile which is never seen on any human face but once.
Helen stood and looked down upon it--the dear familiar face, now, in the grandeur of death, suddenly grown strange.

She thought of what hey had been talking about last night concerning the world to come.