“I think it no treachery to creed when one submits to the equally vital belief of another. I think our creed includes submission, because that also is part of love.”
Palla lifted her face in flushed surprise:
“Is there any compromising with truth?” she asked.
“I think love is the greatest truth. What difference does it make how we love?”
“Does not our example count? You had the courage of your belief. Do you counsel me to subscribe to what I do not believe by acquiescing in it?”
Ilse closed her sea-blue eyes as though fatigued. She said dreamily:
“I think that to believe in love and mating and the bearing of children is the only important belief in the world. But under what local laws you go about doing these things seems to be of minor importance,––a matter, I should say, of personal inclination.”
Ilse wished to go home. That is, to her own apartment, where now were enshrined all her memories of this dead man who had given to her womanhood that ultimate crown which in her eyes seemed perfect.
She said serenely to Palla: “Mine is not the loneliness that craves company with the living. I have a long time to wait; that is all. And after a while I shall not wait alone.
“So you must not grieve for me, darling. You see I know that Jack lives. It’s just the long, long wait that calls for courage. But I think it is a little easier 328 to wait alone until––until there are two to wait––for him–––”