took it with me! She is so proud of our family, although she has only that poor little pot to show for it, with its nose all melted off to make silver bullets sure to kill. Did you know it was one of those bullets Frale tried to kill you with? Oh, David, David!”

“And yet your mother is right, dear. That little wrecked bit of silver helps to interpret you — indicates your ancestors — how you come to be you — just as you are. How could I ever have loved you, if you had been different from what you are?”

For a long moment she lay still — scarcely breathing — then she lifted her head and looked in his eyes. One of her silences was on her, and while her lips trembled as if to speak, she said no word. He tried to draw her to him again, but she held him off.