You must remember that by now it was the twenty-fifth of December.
To remember that is most extraordinarily important. What he saw is so
exciting that it deserves another chapter.




VII


He saw the Woman--but not the Woman as he had left her. She was no
longer sick. She was completely restored. As in the old days her hair
clothed her like a flame. Her face parted it into waves as though she
were a swimmer. He could see the pink dimples in her knees where she sat
and the marble whiteness of her feet, which flashed like jewels. She was
again the darling who had delighted his heart when she had darted like a
sunbeam across the shaven lawns of Eden; but now she was ten times more
radiant.

What was it that had changed her? Her tenderness made a golden mist
about her which inspired him with awe. He had had precisely this sense
of sunny quietness when he had walked through those long, still
afternoons with God.

She was unaware of him. Her eyes were deep pools of sapphire. She was
smiling gently and brooding above something which nestled in her arms.
He called to her softly; she paid him no attention. Far below the ridge,
in obedience to his commands, the animals were still shouting. Was it
because of them that she was smiling? Had the robin flown ahead of him