"The boy is saying: 'Grandpa will have plenty for us when we get home. There's always cherry pie at Grandpa's house.' "And the little girl answers, 'I think Grandpa will come here pretty soon and bring us all the cherry pie we want.'... Her name is Jessie.... Her brother calls her 'Jessie.' She calls him 'Jim.' "Their other name is Colden, I think.... Yes, that is it--Colden.... They seem to be expecting their father and mother; but I don't see them--Oh, yes. I can see them now--in the distance, walking slowly along the sands--" She hesitated, remained silent for a few moments; then: "The colours are blurring to a golden haze. I can't see clearly now; it is like looking into the blinding disk of the rising sun.... All splendour and dazzling glory--and a too fierce light--" For a moment more she remained bent over above the sphere, then raising her head: "The crystal is transparent and empty," she said. [Illustration: "She said in a low voice, still watching intently: 'Blue sky, green trees, a snowy shore, and little azure wavelets....'"] CHAPTER XVII It was about five months later that Cecil Reeve wrote his long reply to a dozen letters from Clive Bailey which heretofore had remained unanswered and neglected: "--For Heaven's sake, do you think I've nothing to do except to write you letters? I _never_ write letters; and here's the exception to prove it. And if I were not at the Geyser Club, and if I had not dined incautiously, I would not write this! "But first permit me the indiscretion of asking you why an engaged man is so charitably interested in the welfare of a young girl who is not engaged to him? And if he is interested, why doesn't he write to her himself and find out how she is? Or has she turned you down? "But you need not incriminate and degrade yourself by answering this question. "Seriously, Clive, you'd better get all thoughts of Athalie Greensleeve out of your head as long as you intend to get married. I knew, of course, that you'd been hard hit. Everybody was gossiping last winter. But this is rather raw, isn't it?--asking me to find out how Athalie is and what she is doing; and to write you in detail? Well anyway I'll tell you once for all what I hear and know about her and her family--her family first, as I happen to have had dealings with them. And hereafter you can do your own philanthropic news gathering.