Page 8 (1/2)

He felt a sharp pain when he thought of the gulf that now separated hiht, They’ll coala, and they’ll be here with us for the banquet and the singing Even Jim will come He promised And Mort and Celeste would come, he’d make sure of it So why feel this pain, why allow it? Why not think of what they would share while they could? He thought of the baby again, and he doubled back to the front and hurried along till he reached the stable It was dark there and the marble Christ Child was barely visible But he made out the pluers of its extended hands

The wind fro hiainst his eyes that they teared up He thought of all the things he had to do for his son, all the things he’d have to assure, and one thing seemed absolutely certain, that he would never let the secret of the Chrism enter the life of his son, that he would shield his son fro him away from Nideck Point when the time came But the future was a little too vast and crowded for him to envision it suddenly

He was cold and sleepy, and he didn’t knohether Marchent aiting for him

Could Marchent feel cold? Was it conceivable that cold was all she felt, a bleak and terrible emotional cold that was far worse than the cold he was now feeling?

A fierce exhilaration came over him

He went back to the Porsche, and took his Burberry out of the trunk It was a fully lined Burberry and he’d never bothered to have it he He buttoned it up and down, pulled up the collar, and alking

He walked into the vast airy shadows of the oak woods gazing up at the hts overhead and around him On and on he walked, aware but unconcerned that theand that his face and hands were now damp He shoved his hands into his pockets

On and on the lighted boughs seeo, and everywhere the lanced back the house was distant The lighted ere scarcely visible, an unshapen flickering beyond the trees

He turned back and continued east He had not come to the end of it, this exquisitely illu the branches ahead of him and behind him

Best to go back

Very suddenly the lights went out

He stood stock-still He was in complete darkness Of course he realized what had happened The Christhts of the property, the floods in front and at the back And at eleven thirty the outside lights alent off, and so had the Christhts of this wonderland

He turned abruptly and started back, i sht on a root He could see nothing around him

Far away the burnished light of the library and dining room s did still reveal his destination, but this was faint, and at anythat he was out here

He tried to pick up the pace, but he suddenly pitched forward and fell hard on the palms of his hands on the mulch