"Good-bye, darling, good-bye!" Paul whispered; but even while he spoke he clung the closer.
"Good-bye for the present, dear husband," said Greta, and smiled.
"Who would have thought that this calamity could wait for you at the very steps of God's altar?"
"A day will turn all this evil into good."
"At the threshold of our life together to be torn apart!"
"Think of it no more, dearest. Our lives will yet be the brighter for this calamity. Do you remember what Parson Christian used to say? The happiest life is not that which is always in the sunlight, but rather that over which a dark cloud has once lowered and passed away."
Paul shook his head. "My lips are sealed. You do not know all. It is a cruel lie that separates us. But what if it can not be disproved?"
Greta's eyes were full of a radiant hopefulness. "It can, and shall!"
Paul bent his head and touched her forehead with his lips. "The past is a silence that gives back no answer," he said. "My mother alone could disprove it, and she is dead to the world."
"Not alone, dearest. I can disprove it. Wait and see!"