If the sea had risen above the reef destroying the village and sweeping¹ the population of Karolin to ruin whilst leaving her untouched, Le Moan would have stood as she stood now, unmoved before the inevitable² and the accomplished³.  
Her world lay around her in ruins and the destroyers lay before her asleep.
 
She had feared death and dreaded⁴ separation, but she had never dreamed of this—for Taori, in her mind, had always stood alone as the sun stands alone in the sky.
 
A spear stood against the tree bole and the pitiless hand that had killed Carlin could have seized it and plunged⁵ it into the heart of Katafa, but if the sea had destroyed her world as this girl had destroyed it, would she have cast a spear at the sea? The thing was done, accomplished, of old time. Her woman’s instinct told her that.
 
Done and accomplished, without any knowledge of her, in a world from which she had been excluded by fate.
 
Moving from the doorway⁶ she passed them, almost touching⁷ their feet. To right and left of her lay the tumbling sea and the lit lagoon⁸, before her the great white road of the beaches and the reef. She followed the leading of this road with little more volition⁹ than the wind-blown leaf or the drifting weed; with only one desire, to be alone.
 
It led to the great trees where the canoe-builders had been at work. Here across the coral lay the trunks felled by Aioma, filling the air with the fragrance¹⁰ of new-cut wood. One already had been partly shaped and hollowed, and resting on it for a moment, Le Moan followed its curves with her eyes, felt the ax marks with her hand, took in every det............