“I wish I could have died instead,” she said.
He lay long absolutely motionless; there was no quiver of any kind on the corners of his mouth to show that he even understood. But she knew he understood, it was because he understood that he lay like that.
At last he spoke again, and the sorrow and anguish in his voice was still comfort to her beyond all price.
“So I shall never see you again,” he said.
Then she bent over the bed, and kissed him on the mouth.
“But never have I been so utterly yours as I am now!” she said, her voice still strong and unwavering. “And, oh, how it fed my heart to know what your first thought was, my darling. I think it would have broken if it had been anything else!”
