His sobs shook her, and the close clasp of his arms was painful; but she neither spoke nor moved.

She heard Phebe coming in, and knew that Roland's mother was there, and Hilda came to clasp her little arms about her as Felix was doing.

But her heart had gone back to the moment when Roland had knelt beside her in the quiet little church, and she had said to him deliberately, "I choose your death." He was dead to her.
"Is it true, mother ?" wailed Felix.

"Oh, tell me it isn't true!" "It is true," she answered.

But the long, tense strain had been too much for her strength, and she sank fainting on the ground..