by the arm, "Let's go for a walk," she said.

I looked about me at darkness and rain.

"That's all right," she laughed. "We can go along the lane and into the
Old Woking Road. Do you mind? Of course you don't. My head. It doesn't
matter. One never meets anybody."

"How do you know?"

"I've wandered like this before.... Of course. Did you think"--she
nodded her head back at her home--"that's all?"

"No, by Jove!" I cried; "it's manifest it isn't."

She took my arm and turned me down the lane. "Night's my time," she
said by my side. "There's a touch of the werewolf in my blood. One never
knows in these old families.... I've wondered often.... Here we are,
anyhow, alone in the world. Just darkness and cold and a sky of clouds
and wet. And we--together.

"I like the wet on my face and hair, don't you? When do you sail?"

I told her to-morrow.

"Oh, well, there's no to-morrow now. You and I!" She stopped and
confronted me.

"You don't say a word except to answer!"

"No," I said.

"Last time you did all the talking."

"Like a fool. Now--"

We looked at each other's two dim faces. "You're glad to be here?"

"I'm glad--I'm beginning to be--it's more than glad."

She put her hands on my shoulders and drew me down to kiss her.

"Ah!" she said, and for a moment or so we just clung to one another.

"That's all," she said, releasing herself. "What bundles of clothes we
are to-night. I felt we should kiss some day again. Always. The last
time was ages ago."

"Among the fern stalks."

"Among the bracken. You remember. And your lips were cold. Were mine?
The same lips--after so long--after so much!... And now let's trudge
through this blotted-out world together for a time. Yes, let me take
your arm. Just trudge. See? Hold tight to me because I know the way--and
don't talk--don't talk. Unless you want to talk.... Let me tell you
things! You see, dear, the whole world is blotted out--it's dead and
gone, and we're in this place. This dark wild place.... We're dead. Or
all the world is dead. No! We're dead. No one can see us. We're shadows.
We've got out of our positions, out of our bodies--and together. That's
the good thing of it--together. But that's why the world can't see us
and why we hardly see the world. Sssh! Is it all right?"

"It's all right," I said.

We stumbled along for a time in a close silence. We passed a dim-lit,
rain-veiled window.

"The silly world," she said, "the silly world! It eats and