Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (197 page)

"Glad!"
she
exclaimed.

"Those
ten
minutes
were
unpleasant,"
he
assented.

"They
were
wicked,"
she
exclaimed
energetically.
"They
---
"
she

paused
and
took
my
arm
again:
"They
are
forgotten
and
forgiven. Our
thoughts
of
each
other
now
can
be
all
frankness
and
trust."

I
must
have
been
imprisoned
for
some
hours,
for
when
I
went
in there
had
been
a
bright
moon
in
a
bare
sky,
where
now
there
was
no moon
and
the
heavens
were
deeply
shadowed.
Our
faces
were
visible to
each
other
as
dull
shapes,
and
the
spaces
about
us
were
bathed
in that
diaphanous
darkness
through
which
one
looks
without
seeing, and
against
which
things
loom
rather
than
show.

A
wonderful
feeling
of
well-being
flowed
through
me,
warming
and bracing
me.
A
feeling
of
astonishing
rest
for
myself,
and
of
endless affection
for
my
companions.

And
with
it
all
there
was
a
sense,
confused
and
yet
strong,
that
I knew
something
which
they
did
not
know.
That
I
had
a
secret
which would
astonish
them
when
they
discovered
it.

I
knew
they
should
discover
it,
for
I
would
reveal
it
to
them
myself, as
soon
as
I
became
aware
of
what
it
really
was.
And
my
mind
was filled
with
joy
at
the
thought
of
how
I
would
surprise
them,
and
of how
they
should
be
surprised.

That
strange
knowledge
lay
like
a
warmth
at
my
heart.
It
lit
the dull
night
for
me,
so
that
through
the
gloom
and
mirk
I
walked
as
on air
and
in
radiance.
All
that
I
had
gone
through
vanished
from
my memory.
It
was
as
though
it
had
never
been.
Nothing
was
any
more but
this
new-found
rest
and
contentment.

Happiness!
I
had
found
it
at
last;
and
it
was
more
worth
finding than
anything
I
had
yet
experienced.

But
the
end
of
our
walk
was
nigh.
At
a
distance
was
the
gleam
of lights,
and
black
silhouettes
about
them.
We
increased
our
pace,
I, willingly
enough,
for
I
wished
to
tell
them
a
secret;
and
in
a
short time
we
came
to
the
great
steps
and
mounted
them.
Men
were
there with
torches,
and
we
walked
gaily
from
darkness
into
light.

Reaching
the
top,
on
the
wide
platform
before
the
door,
she
turned to
me
with
a
smile,
and
she
stopped
dead.
I
saw
the
smile
frozen
on her
face.
I
saw
her
face
blanch
to
the
whiteness
of
snow,
and
her
eyes widen
and
fix
and
stare.
She
clasped
her
bosom
with
both
hands
and stood
so,
staring.

Then
something,
a
self
of
me,
detached
itself
from
me,
and
stood forward
and
looked
also.

I
saw
myself.
My
mouth
was
twisted
sidewards
in
a
jolly
grin.
My eyes
were
turned
inwards
in
a
comical
squint,
and
my
chin
was
all
a sop
of
my
own
saliva.