And it was then, when he had come through the valley and was ready to climb again, that the glory came to him.
As the two friends sprang lightly over the turf wall into the garden of the Red House, they saw a sight which one of them will not forget as long as he lives.
The Red House. The gap in the hedge. The cottage.
In the gap of the tall hedge, where the path led down to the cottage,—ringed in its darkness like a lovely picture in a sombre frame, with a pale eucalyptus rising stately on either side; and behind it all, and gleaming softly through and round it all, the tender glories of the new day,—stood a girl in a dove-coloured dress, bareheaded, holding the dew-pearled branches apart with her two hands, and gazing at him with wide eyes, and parted lips, and startled face.
And the girl was Margaret Brandt.
IV
Graeme's first thought was that he was dreaming. He blinked his eyes to make sure they were not playing him false.
If she had disappeared at that moment, he would have sworn to hallucinations and the visibility of spirits to the day of his death.