From the sombre mood of his defeat, he said bitterly:—
"So it was all wrong,—a mistake, a delusion!"
"Never!" she flashed. "Never! Not for one moment since we parted would I give up what has been between us…. You do not understand, dearest! … Life began for me there. If it had not been for that, this could not be now. But one journeys on from knowledge to knowledge."
"Then why not other heights—together?"
And she whispered back very low:—
"Because we should kill it! All of it… now that I see it would be base. We have risen above that glory,—yes, both of us! We have risen above it, divine as it was. It would be no longer divine, my dearest. I should be but a woman's body in your arms, my lover…. Now we shall rise always, always, together—each in the other!"
The lights of the village shone just below them. A sleigh went tinkling loudly along the road, with the voices of talking people in the dark night. Margaret stopped before they reached the road, and turning to him put her arms about his neck and drew him to her.
"Don't you know that I shall be yours always? Ah, dearest, dearest!"
In the passionate tenderness of her kiss he felt the fulness of victory and defeat. She was his, but never to be his. He kissed her burning eyes.