The crowd ebbed back like a wave, carrying Reuben, now screaming and terrified, towards where something unknown burned with horrible crackles and roaring.
That visit was the first of several others. Starvecrow took the place of Cheat Landindeed, he seldom went near Cheat Land now. Rose gave him all the refuge he wanted from the vexings and thwartings of his daily life. She was not, like Alice, a counter-irritant, but a sweet drowse of tenderness and beauty in which he forgot his disappointment, thinking of nothing but the lovely woman he caressed.
In time the contrast of silence grew quite painful. It ached. Only the sough of the wind in the reeds troubled itthe feet of Rose and Handshut were noiseless on the grass, they breathed inaudibly, only the breath of the watching night was heard.