And at these words my heart went out to him, and I knew that these two loved each other with a love in which there was no taint of selfishness. Years, perhaps, would dull the sting of the wound, but for them, as for me, life would hold few sweeter memories than that of this sacred moment. I could not trust myself to turn from the window. The lights without were blurred with my tears and in my heart was a great tenderness.
The princess was the strongest of us all.
“You must go, my friend,” she said, at last. “My friend I shall always deem you,—my nearest and dearest friend,—who stood true to me in the bitterest hour of my life. Look up,—here, in my eyes. Do you see any sorrow there? Sorrow there may have been,—sorrow there may be again,—but now it is swallowed up by joy and pride in you.”
I turned to look at them. It must have been with faces so transfigured that martyrs went to the stake,—yea, Christ to His cross.
Her arms were around his neck, and she bent her head and kissed him.
“It is the last,” she said,—“the last I shall willingly give,” and she gently loosed his hands, arose, and stood from him.
“We, also, must say good-by,” said a low voice at my elbow, and I turned with a start to see Louise standing there.
“You, too, are going?” I cried, with a great fear at my heart.
“Yes, it is settled,” and she was looking into my eyes. “My place is at her side. But my sacrifice, my friend, is much less than hers. I am leaving, perhaps, people whom I love, but there is no abyss at the end of the path such as yawns before Charlotte.”
“No,” I answered, “no,” but I could say no more.