What sacred splendour will this star send forth
When it shall shine without this vail of Earth?”
She had to travel a darksome road, but he brightened the way for her. He was so sure himself, concerning the certainty of the truths he uttered, that it seemed impossible for her to doubt. A man himself who had never much regarded the ways, nor manners, nor fashions of this present world, he was able to give her, who had lived in the world all her life, many hints as to where she was going astray, in what errors she was indulging.
He brought her the first snowdrop that put its head above ground; he searched all the banks and hedgerows for the “pale primrose;” he told her when and where the birds were building, and how many eggs there were in the blackbird’s nest.
Well, she had her wish! She lived to touch snowdrops and primroses; to hear the birds singing, and see the trees putting forth; she lived till nature put off her winter clothing, and the sun shone over the earth once more; then——
“Gordon, I feel I shall soon have to go now,” she said, one morning. “Thank you for staying with me to the last.”
She put her arms round his neck, and drew his face down to hers.
“If all had gone well,” she whispered, “we should now have been man and wife for sixteen years. I wonder would that have made this parting any easier?”
Over and over and over again Major Morrice kissed her, but it was a minute before he could steady his voice sufficiently to answer—
“You know I wanted you to be my wife even at the end.”