"I am here, Wolff, my darling, my husband! I have come back—I will atone to you with my whole life. You don't know how I love you—more than people, more than country, more than the whole world! I have learnt just in the last hours that there is no one else who matters to me but you, and you alone. I will make you happy—so happy, my dearest!"
In that moment she remembered the power that had been given her, and her voice rang with the exultation of victory. He heard it, and the painful excitement died out of his eyes. The mist of dreams shifted, and he picked up the thread as though the short burst of delirium had never been.
"Nora, why do you look at me like that? What is it you are trying to say to me? There is something new in your face. Nora, help me! I am groping in the dark——"
She held him closer to her, and it seemed to her that the threatening hand of Fate sank, and that Death drew back as from a greater power.
"I am happy, Wolff—happier than I have ever been. I know that our happiness has begun at last."
"It is too late—too late, Nora!"
"Not if you live, my darling. And you will live, because you will not leave me comfortless—because there is another to come who will need you——"
She broke off. He was looking at her as he had once looked at her before—as though he were trying to pierce down to the uttermost depths of her soul. A look of dawning wonder was in his eyes.
"Nora—is it possible——?"
She smiled at him triumphantly through the blinding tears.