“She has slept ever since I ’phoned to you. She will get well.”
“Thank God!” he said, as men will in these moments, whether they believe or no.
His face was curiously alive, alight with some great happening; there was an air of joyous excitement about him. He moved towards her, and smiled a little, rather shamefaced smile, and the odd likeness to a schoolboy who is feeling shy was very apparent. Then he blurted it out.
“I have seen him,” he said.
“Ah!” The exclamation was a note of pure joy. “Oh, tell me about it!”
“He was leaning over the gate. He was looking for me, waiting for me, just as he used to do. And he looked at me with his dear old grin. It was ever so real.”
“Yes. Yes.”
“And he spoke. Just as you have told me. It isn’t the same as speaking here. It’s something like a thought passing——”
He stopped, his face all alight. He looked years younger. The heavy lines were hardly visible.
“I wish I had spoken. Somehow at the moment I couldn’t.”