"You—have—come—back!" he said, with slow articulation.
"My darling—my darling!" she made quivering answer. "Say I've come—in time!"
He tried to speak again, but could not. Yet the deathly cold was giving way like ice before the sun. He could feel his heart beating where before he had felt nothing. A hand that was not Puck's came out of the void beyond her and held a spoonful of spirit to his mouth. He swallowed it with difficulty, and was conscious of a greater warmth.
"There, my own boy, my own boy!" she murmured over him. "You're coming back to me. Say you're coming back!"
His lips quivered like a child's. He forced them to answer her. "If you—will—stay," he said.
"I will never leave you again, darling," she made swift answer. "Never, never again! You shall have all that you want—all—all!"
Her arms closed about him. He felt the warmth of her body, the passionate nearness of her soul; and therewith the flame that had kindled between them leaped to a great and burning glow, encompassing them both—the Sacred Fire.
A wonderful sense of comfort came upon him. He turned to her as a man turns to only one woman in all the world, and laid his head upon her breast.
"I only want—my wife," he said.