She stood at yonder gate day after day and watched the harbour ; and when at last she gave up hope life went with it . I remember the day : she had watched until sunset . Then she turned away from the gate . All the unrest and despair had gone out of her eyes . There was a terrible peace in them -- the peace of the dead . ` He will never come back now , Abel , ' she said to me . `` In less than a week she was dead . The others mourned her , but I did n't , master . She had sounded the deeps of living and there was nothing else to linger through the years for . My grief had spent itself earlier , when I walked this garden in agony because I could not help her . But often , on these long warm summer afternoons , I seem to hear Alice 's laughter all over this garden ; though she 's been dead so long . '' He lapsed into a reverie which I did not disturb , and it was not until another day that I learned of the other memory that he cherished . He reverted to it suddenly as we sat again in the hop-vine arbour , looking at the glimmering radiance of the September sea . `` Master , how many of us are sitting here ? '' `` Two in the flesh . How many in the spirit I know not , '' I answered , humouring his mood . `` There is one -- the other of the two I spoke of the day I told you about Alice . It 's harder for me to speak of this one . '' `` Do n't speak of it if it hurts you , '' I said . `` But I want to .
It 's a whim XXXXX mine .
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