“Those words. Those very words had just come to me, the meaning of everything—The terrible splendour of life. How did you know?”
“It was our souls that were going together through the storm.”
She released him, and withdrew a little.
“Did you know all that I was thinking?”
“Or all that the sea was telling you?”
“Did you feel that, too?” she asked breathlessly.
“I think so,” he replied.
“It was strange,” she said. “I hardly knew that I was here. I seemed to be away in the midst of it all, but I don't think I lost consciousness. I had adventures—curious adventures.” She paused abruptly, then she continued: “They seemed to be definite then, but they are all a blur now. It was a kind of battle between man and evil forces, and I think I felt a voice speaking through it, and saying that the splendour of man would never be subdued; and the impression I 've got is, that I saw something, whether it was a shape or a scene I don't know, but something great and grand and fierce and heroic, and the voice told me it was life. The only thing I have clear is the words, 'the terrible splendour of life,' the words you plucked out of me.”
“It is the great secret,” he said.
“Yes.”