And that was the nearest he ever came to asking her forgiveness. For she stopped the words with her lips on his, and he never thought of uttering them again.
EPILOGUE
Christmas Eve and children's voices singing in the night! Two figures by the open window listening—a man and a woman, hand in hand in the dark!
"Don't let them see us yet!" It was the woman's voice, low but with a deep thrill in it as of full and complete content. "I knew they were coming. Gracie whispered it to me this morning. But I wasn't to tell anyone. She was so afraid their father might forbid it."
The man answered with a faint, derisive laugh that yet had in it an echo of the woman's satisfaction. He did not speak, for already through the winter darkness a single, boyish voice had taken up another verse:
"He comes, the prisoners to release
In Satan's bondage held;
The gates of brass before Him burst,
The iron fetters yield."
The woman's fingers clung fast to his. "Love opens every door," she whispered.
His answering grip was close and strong. But he said nothing while the last triumphant lines were repeated.
"The gates of brass before Him burst,
The iron fetters yield."
The next verse was sung by two voices in harmony, very soft and hushed.