And at the convent in the north of
Scotland the same thought still came back to Peter, though no news had
yet been received there from Monte Carlo.
"Were you afraid?" the Maharajah of Indorwana asked Mary, as the colour
slowly flowed back to her face.
"No," she said, dreamily, "not afraid. But it was like dying and going
to another world. When we were rushing through the water with the loud
noise of machinery in our ears, and the glassy screen of spray over our
heads, I lost my breath. I couldn't think clearly; but I supposed that
was all. I couldn't believe we should go up. But then came the spring,
and we were in the air, bounding higher--it was like something imagined
after death. And the rest was being in heaven, till we began to drop.
Then, just for a few seconds, it felt as if my body were falling and
leaving my soul poised up there in the sky. I shall never forget--never.
And when the time does come to die, I don't believe I shall mind now,
for I know it will be like that, with the wonder of it after the
shrinking is over."
Hannaford looked at her closely as she spoke. He was continually
thinking of death as a dark room, behind a shut door which he would
perhaps choose to open. He felt that he would like to talk to her some
day about what she really expected to find on the other side of the
door.
Nothing else was quite real to him in the scene, when everybody pressed
round Carleton, congratulating him on his machine and the exploit of
which the airman seemed to think little.
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