"I'll marry you that way—if it's the only way," he said.
"It is the—only way."
She laid a soft hand in his; he bent and kissed it, then touched her mouth with his lips.
"Do you give yourself to me, Valerie?"
"Yes."
"From this moment?" he whispered.
Her face paled. She stood resting her cheek on his shoulder, eyes distrait thinking. Then, in a voice so low and tremulous he scarce could understand:
"Yes, now," she said, "I—give—myself."
He drew her closer: she relaxed in his embrace; her face, white as a flower, upturned to his, her dark eyes looking blindly into his.
There was no sound save the feathery rush of snow against the panes—the fall of an ember amid whitening ashes—a sigh—silence.