"I am glad. It's what I hoped to hear you say," he responded. "I don't think somehow I could be as happy anywhere else, but the world's a big place and you—you have the right to the best it holds—anywhere."
"Once, dear, you know," she told him gravely, "we threshed that out and we had almost made up our minds to leave here. We were almost whipped—and Ham had his dreams. He wanted to go out and try life in a bigger world—and you recognized his power. I wanted it all, too—but we stayed. I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't, but I do know—" she looked up into his face and smiled; into her eyes came a regal serenity—"I do know that I don't have to go out and hunt for life—life has come to me, and I'm happy."
The man caught her to him and she clasped her hands behind his head. Before them was June and starlight and youth and life—and love. He bent his head and pressed his lips to hers and felt her heart beat against his own.
In the mirror of Lake Forsaken, back of her, gleamed the splintered light of a thousand stars, and in his heart gleamed a million.
"As beautiful as starlight on water," he whispered.