together, some obscure detestable presence as slowly, as doggedly
had drawn worsted aside. He could see again the peaceful
outspread branches of the trees, the lych-gate standing in
clear-cut silhouette against the liquid dusk of the sky. A
strange calm stole over his mind. The very meaning and memory of
his fear faded out and vanished, as the passed-away clouds of a
storm that leave a purer, serener sky.

They stopped and stood together on the brow of the little hill,
and Lawford, still trembling from head to foot, looked back
across the hushed and lightless countryside. 'It's all gone now,'
he said wearily, 'and now there's nothing left. You see, I cannot
even ask your forgiveness--and a stranger!'

'Please don't say that--unless--unless--a "pilgrim" too. I think,
surely, you must own we did have the best of it that time. Yes--
and I don't care WHO may be listening--but we DID win through.'

'What can I say? How shall I explain? How shall I make you
understand?'

The clear grey eyes showed not the faintest perturbation. 'But I
do; I do indeed, in part; I do understand, ever so faintly.'

'And now I will come back with you.'

They paused in the darkness face to face, the silence of the sky,
arched in its vastness above the little hill, the only witness of
their triumph.