Miriam’s arms fell to her sides, nor was there strength in her to lift a finger. Nor had her lips power to form themselves into a smile; but the soul within her rushed into her widely opened eyes with such a radiance of speechless joy that the others turned aside and retired noiselessly into a remote part of the great chamber, realizing that the place of these two was holy ground. He came forward another step; but not yet did she believe that this was more than a return of that blessed vision which had been granted her on the other side of space. Oh, was not this happiness enough!
She seemed to herself to be floating in a shining void of heaven, with the glow of a great warmth suffusing her. How real, how near seemed his face. Or was it that she herself had unawares been borne to paradise, and they were met to part no more!
“I cannot bear it, love!” she whispered. “It seems too real. And then to have you go again.”
But now she felt a touch; his arms, firm and strong, were round her; his lips were upon her lips, and no illusion or magic prevented them. Her cry sprang forth like the warbling of a bird—joy, passion, and music in one:
“Oh, Jack; my darling, my love, my own! It’s you; it’s you, you, your own blessed self! Jack, it’s forever!” Her hands caught at him, gripped him hard, his arms, his shoulders, his face; her fingers plunged in his hair. “Oh, love, you were dead, and are alive again!”
Twilight had entered into night when the lovers compelled themselves to issue from their paradise, and join the others where they sat at a table near an open window in the laboratory. The window was wide and high, and commanded a large view of the heavens in that quarter. A great star hung midway aloft, giving out a serene light. The lights in the room had been lowered, as if not to detract from its radiance. Miriam’s hold upon her lover’s arm tightened:
“Jack, we were there”
“Eight hundred million miles!” said he.
“And you went there for me!”
“I would go to Sirius for you; the universe is not large enough to keep me from you. Nothing is too far for love.”