She went on, albeit her lips were quivering. "I don't need to tell you that, do I? You know it so well. I don't think I really need to tell you--of this other thing either--of this big, big gift that is coming to us. Oh, Jake, dear Jake, I have so hoped--so hoped!"
He held her closer. "My own girl! Guess you'll be happy now!" he whispered.
She smiled at him through tears. "No, not for my own sake,--for yours--for yours!"
"For mine!" he said. "Haven't you given me all the world and then some?"
She uttered a trembling laugh. "I've given you lots that you didn't want to take--things that have cost me nothing. But this--this is different. And--it's the thing you wanted."
He clasped her to him almost fiercely. "My girl, I want nothing--no one--but you!"
She clung to him with a tenseness that was passionate. "That is what I wanted to say to you, my darling. You will always be first--first--first. Dr. Capper once told me that--that my frog would turn into a prince some day. And--dear--he was right. You are the prince of my heart--for ever. I love you as--as I never thought it was humanly possible to love."
"Maybe it's not--all human," he whispered, with lips that moved against her own.
"You are right," she whispered back. "It is Divine. The perfect Gift. But it only comes to those who give--without measure--not counting the cost--rejoicing only in the power to give--till it all comes back a thousandfold--a thousandfold." Her voice thrilled, her arms clung closer. "I once heard a man preach about that. And at the end he said, 'It is then that the ploughman overtakes the reaper, for ploughman and reaper are one.' Jake, I think that man spoke a great truth. You and I have done some heavy ploughing, but we are beginning to be reapers now." Her lips suddenly pressed his closely, lingeringly. Her tears were gone. "It's good to reap our own harvest, isn't it, Jake?" she murmured. "Yours and mine together?"
And Jake answered her in his own language, his voice very soft and slow, his eyes gazing straight into hers, seeing her soul. "Sure!" he said. "Sure!"