"Nothing really IS strange," said Hector MacNairn. "Again and again
through all the ages we have been told the secrets of the gods and the
wonders of the Law, and we have revered and echoed but never believed.
When we believe and know all is simple we shall not be afraid. You are
not afraid, Ysobel. Tell my mother you are not."

I turned my face toward her again in the darkness. I felt as if
something was going on between them which he somehow knew I could help
them in. It was as though he were calling on something in my nature
which I did not myself comprehend, but which his profound mind saw and
knew was stronger than I was.

Suddenly I felt as if I might trust to him and to It, and that, without
being troubled or anxious, I would just say the first thing which came
into my mind, because it would be put there for me by some power which
could dictate to me. I never felt younger or less clever than I did at
that moment; I was only Ysobel Muircarrie, who knew almost nothing. But
that did not seem to matter. It was such a simple, almost childish thing
I told her. It was only about The Dream.



CHAPTER VII

"The feeling you call The Fear has never come to me," I said to her.
"And if it had I think it would have melted away because of a dream I
once had. I don't really believe it was a dream, but I call it one. I
think I really went somewhere and came back. I often wonder why I
came back. It was only a short dream, so simple that there is scarcely