He started, saw her, and then waited smiling as she came running up the garden path toward him, the blaze of the sky behind her, her face alight with life and color.
“Why, dearest, I didn’t know what had happened to you,” he cried. “Where did you go?”
Her unslackened speed carried her up the stairs and into his arms. Standing on the step below him she flung hers round his shoulders, and holding him tight, said breathlessly:
“What do you think has happened?”
“You met a bear in the wood.”
“My voice has come back.”
The two pairs of eyes, the woman’s looking up, the man’s down, gazed deeply into each other. There was a moment of silence, the silence of people who are still unused to and a little overawed by their happiness.
“I heard you,” he said.
“You did? From here?”
“Yes. I heard some one singing and stood here listening, watching the light coming up.”