his eyes gazing deep into hers. He kissed her, but not passionately,
rather with reverence.

"Your afterwards will be mine, dear, wherever it is," he said. "If it
comes to that--if there is any going--in that way--we go together."

The anxiety went out of her face in a second. She smiled back at him
with utter confidence. "Oh, Billikins!" she said. "Oh, Billikins, that
will be great!"

She went back into his arms, and lay there for a further space, saying
no word. There was something sacred in the silence between them,
something mysterious and wonderful. The drip, drip, drip of the
ceaseless rain was the only sound in the stillness. They seemed to be
alone together in a sanctuary that none other might enter, husband and
wife, made one by the Bond Imperishable, waiting together for
deliverance. They were the most precious moments that either had ever
known, for in them they were more truly wedded in spirit than they had
ever been before.

How long the great silence lasted neither could have said. It lay like a
spell for awhile, and like a spell it passed.

Merryon moved at last, moved and looked down into his wife's eyes.

They met his instantly without a hint of shrinking; they even smiled.
"It must be nearly bedtime," she said. "You are not going to be busy
to-night?"

"Not to-night," he said.