Page:In the days of the comet.djvu/282

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But she was not looking when the Change came.

"When I saw the stars a-raining down, dear," she said, "and though of you out in it, I thought there'd be no harm in saying a prayer for you, dear? I thought you wouldn't mind that."

And so I got another of my pictures--the green vapours come and go, and there by her patched coverlet that dear old woman kneels and droops, still clasping her poor gnarled hands in the attitude of prayer--prayer to IT--for me!

Through the meagre curtains an blinds of the flawed refracting window I see the stars above the chimneys fade, the pale light of dawn creeps intot he sky, and her candle flares and dies. . ..

That also went with me through the stillness--that silent kneeling figure, that frozen prayer to God to shield me, silent in a silent world, rushing through the emptiness of space. . ..

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With the dawn that awakening went about the earth. I have told how it came to me, and how I walked in wonder through the transfigured cornfields of Shaphambury. It came to everyo