"We'll arrange about Girlie when I reach home, which will be next week, I hope—or rather fear—for every day is like a month when I'm away from you.
"But never mind, little woman! Once I get this big Expedition over we are not going to be separated any more. Not for a single day as long as we live, dearest! No, by the Lord God—life's too short for it.
"MART."
ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH CHAPTER
After I had read this letter I saw that my great battle, which I had supposed to be over, was hardly begun.
Martin was coming home with his big heart full of love for me, and my own heart ran out to meet him.
He intended to sail for New Zealand the second week in August, and he expected to take me with him.
In spite of all my religious fears and misgivings, I asked myself why I should not go? What was to prevent me? What sin had I really committed? What was there for reparation? Was it anything more than the letter of the Divine law that I had defied and broken?
My love was mine and I was his, and I belonged to him for ever. He was going out on a great errand in the service of humanity. Couldn't I go to be his partner and helpmate? And if there had been sin, if the law of God had been broken, wouldn't that, too, be a great atonement?