"I don't promise you anything about it," he answered, taking her hand in
his. "Only I'm not a bit afraid of the plain, nor the way that's before
us. Come along with me, and let's see what's there."

"Do you think you know where we are going, across that plain?" she asked
him painfully; "even where we are to _try_ to go?"

"No, I don't know, now," he answered undismayed. "But I think we will
know it as we go along because we will be together."

* * * * *

The darkness, folding itself like a velvet mantle about the far
mountains, deepened, and her voice deepened with it. "Can you even
promise that we won't lose each other there?" she asked somberly.

At this he suddenly took her into his arms, silently, bending his face
to hers, his insistent eyes bringing hers up to meet his gaze. She could
feel the strong throbbing of his heart all through her own body.

She clung to him as though she were drowning. And indeed she felt that
she was. Life burst over them with a roar, a superb flooding tide on
whose strong swelling bosom they felt themselves rising, rising
illimitably.

The sun had now wholly set, leaving to darkness the old, old plain,
soaked with humanity.