“Ah me,” said he, holding her close (how he loved the musical voice!)—“I have been such a fool—such—a fool! But I have found you, dear heart, at last—and in finding you I have found all.” And he added: “I have suffered, Betty.”
She laid her slender fingers upon his head.
He was shaken with a sob.
She stroked his hair:
“I have so longed for you, Noll—it has been very lonely. The little one——”
Noll was sobbing like a child.
She bent down with the babe, lifted Noll’s face in her hand and kissed him:
“Hush, Noll, dear heart,” she said—“you mustn’t do that. This is no time for tears. We have come into our kingdom.” She laughed with tears in the laugh. “And it is so near the stars.”
“I am glad to be home,” he said. And he added with a sad laugh: “It does not make me giddy being near the stars, sweetheart—I have lived up there before—with you.”
She stroked his hair: