"No, no," he said, "it would be wrong, wrong to yourself and wrong to
your descendants."

"Very well, Alan, then, we will wait, or perhaps luck will come our
way--why shouldn't it? At any rate for my part I never felt so happy in
my life; for, dear Alan, we have found what we were born to find, found
it once and for always, and the rest is mere etceteras. What would be
the use of all the gold of the Asiki people that Jeekie was talking
about last night, to either of us, if we had not each other? We can
get on without the wealth, but we couldn't get on apart, or at least I
couldn't and I don't mind saying so."

"No, my darling, no," he answered, turning white at the very thought,
"we couldn't get on apart--now. In fact I don't know how I have done so
so long already, except that I was always hoping that a time would
come when we shouldn't be apart. That is why I went into that infernal
business, to make enough money to be able to ask you to marry me.
And now I have gone out of the business and asked you just when I
shouldn't."

"Yes, so you see you might as well have done it a year or two ago when
perhaps things would have been simpler. Well, it is a fine example of
the vanity of human plans, and, Alan, we must be going home to lunch. If
we don't, Sir Robert will be organizing a search party to look for us;
in fact, I shouldn't wonder if he is doing that already, in the wrong
direction."

The mention of Sir Robert Aylward's name fell on them both like a blast
of cold wind in summer, and for a while they walked in silence.