He took her into his arms, holding her now with a pure tenderness, grateful for her wisdom, passionately grateful that she had understood. 'Of course I'll come back. You vastly overestimate the dangers.'

'You'll think of me, Meme: nights when you sit beside your campfire, when you hear the sound of water, the mighty new rivers that you will find out there in the far country.'

She straightened suddenly, staring past him out of the shattered window into the black night. 'What is the message of rivers? Why docs it mean something so deep, so disquieting and yet fulfilling—I can't express it. Yet it's in that song, "Water, parted from the sea ... Still it murmurs as it flows, panting for its native home." The rushing waters panting for the sea. They mean love to me, but they mean life too—and fear. What is the sea, Meme? Is it peace—or death?'

'I don't know, my darling,' he answered, smiling. 'Perhaps both at once, for death is peace, I think. You're a little pagan. The Indians have much the same feeling about rivers that you have.'

He spoke with determined lightness, but he understood her. Again she had touched the mysticism in his own soul. Sometimes, not often, when alone in the forests, he had felt all the manifestations of nature to be endowed with an inner meaning. He was half-ashamed of this, believing it to be puerile sentimentality. Yet he loved her best as she was now, withdrawn from him, unapproachable, her fragile face lit by a brooding beauty.

He was profoundly glad that he had not possessed her. Whether the aftermath would have been disillusionment or a compelling ecstasy which would have bound them fast—he could not tell. In either case their love would have crystallized into a new, more rigid form from which they could not have escaped. Now they were still free.

The candle sputtered suddenly and Theo turned her head. She gave a cry and jumped to her feet. 'Merne, look! The candle! It's nearly gone. It must be very late. Oh, what shall I do if Father comes home before I do! What will happen?'

'Eleanore will think of some excuse for you. Don't be frightened, my dear one'. He kissed a strand of her long shining hair. But in truth he thought that she had better go. Their hour was rounded and finished. Since it must be, it was time for them to take up again their separate lives.

She bundled her hair under the hood, fastened the ribbons on her cloak. Her fingers shook with haste. When she stood ready, they looked silently at each other.