Fate had washed them away just as this ocean would wash away the child's
playhouse built upon the sands. They had believed they could make their
lives, that it was for their spirit to elect what they should do, their
hands build as they had willed; and all that the spirit had willed to do,
and all that the hands set about to achieve, was washed away by just one
of those waves of fate which rolled in and took them with no more of
regret, no more of compassion, than the sea would have in washing away
the play-house built upon the sands. And if the sea were chidden for
having taken away the house upon the sands, which meant much to some one,
it would quite likely answer grimly: "I did not know that it was there."
She laughed--and Karl would have hated life for bringing Ernestine to
that laugh. But she laughed to think how she had looked fate in the face
with the words: "I will prevail against you!" Would the child, building
its house upon the sand and saying to the ocean: "I will not let you take
my house!" be more absurd than she?
What she had believed to be the tremendous force of her spirit had been
as one grain of sand against the tides of ocean.
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