Where No Fear Was
WHERE NO FEAR WAS A BOOK ABOUT FEAR By ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON 1914 "Thus they went on till they came to about the middle of the galley, and then Christiana said, 'Methinks I see something yonder on the read before us, a thing of such a shape such as I have not seen.' Then said Joseph, 'Mother, what is it?' 'An ugly thing, Child, an ugly thing,' said she. 'But, Mother, what is it like?' said he. ''Tis like I cannot tell what,' said she. And now it was
rain. We jump over puddles as we walk. I stare fixedly at Benoit's
square shoulders in front of me, and the dancing tails of his coat as
the wind hustles them along the nocturnal way.
Passing through the suburban quarter, the wind comes so hard between
the infrequent houses that the bushes on either side shiver and press
towards us, and seem to unfurl. Ah, we are not made for the greater
happenings!
* * * * * *
I meet first in the room the resounding glare of a wood fire and an
almost repelling heat. The odors of camphor and ether catch my throat.
People that I know are standing round the bed. They turn to me and
speak all together.
I bend down to look at Mame. She is inlaid upon the whiteness of the
bed, which is motionless as marble. Her face is sunk in the cavity of
the pillow. Her eyes are half closed and do not move; her skin has
darkened. Each breath hums in her throat, and beyond that slight
stirring of larynx and lips her little frail body moves no more than a
doll's. She has not got her cap on and her gray hair is unraveled on
her head like flocks of dust.
Several voices at once explain to me that it is "double congestion, and
her heart as well." She was attacked by a dizziness, by prolonged and
WHERE NO FEAR WAS A BOOK ABOUT FEAR By ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON 1914 "Thus they went on till they came to about the middle of the galley, and then Christiana said, 'Methinks I see something yonder on the read before us, a thing of such a shape such as I have not seen.' Then said Joseph, 'Mother, what is it?' 'An ugly thing, Child, an ugly thing,' said she. 'But, Mother, what is it like?' said he. ''Tis like I cannot tell what,' said she. And now it was