for many years she waited for tidings of them. It was conjectured that a
great rock had fallen on and crushed them beneath it. Grief for her lost
children made her hair white, and gave that expression to her face."

"And when did this happen?"

"Over two thousand years ago."

"Oh, then it is a very old family tradition. But the statue--when was
that made and placed here?"

"She had it made and placed here herself. It was her wish that the grief
she endured should be remembered in the house for all time, for no one
had ever suffered like her; and the inscription, which she caused to be
put on the stone, says that if there shall ever come to a mother in the
house a sorrow exceeding hers, the statue shall be removed from its
place and destroyed, and the fragments buried in the earth with all
forgotten things, and the name of Isarte forgotten in the house."

It oppressed my mind to think of so long a period of time during which
that unutterably sad face had gazed down on so many generations of the
living. "It is most strange!" I murmured. "But do you think it right,
Yoletta, that the grief of one person should be perpetuated like that in
the house; for who can look on this face without pain, even when it is
remembered that the sorrow it expresses ended so many centuries ago?"

"But she was a mother, Smith, do you not understand? It would not be
right for us to wish to have our griefs remembered for ever, to cause
sorrow to those who succeed us; but a mother is different: her wishes
are sacred, and what she wills is right."