The woman slowly viewed his face and his frame. And a queer thrill shot deep and true, far down into the innermost reaches of her being. Here was a MAN!
Two pairs of calm eyes met in that moment. Face to face, eye to eye, they looked upon each other and those glances held. Male and female, worthy of each other, made for each other, they met at high noon under an infinite cobalt sky on a spot as level and far-flung as the Tablelands of Eternity. And all around and about them was Sunshine. It had to be in the sunshine, that!
III
The woman was the first to speak.
“Why! You’re the soldier who climbed toward me day before yesterday, out of the fog.”
Nathan’s voice was steady.
“Out of the Fog, yes!” he replied. “And you were the Good Angel who saw me trying to get out of the Fog and came down and helped me to make the Top.”
“I suppose we should introduce ourselves, as there’s no one apparently to do it for us. I am Madelaine Theddon from Springfield, Massachusetts.”
The breeze stopped blowing for a moment. All sounds softened into eternal silence. Even the sunlight waited. Nathan never took his eyes from that cameo face.
“Forge is my name, Miss Theddon,” he said. “Nathaniel Forge! I’m from Vermont.”