dred and twenty years! O-oh! And in a hundred and twenty
years where will these two sensible people be?

CAPT. G. What does it matter so long as we are together now?

MRS. G. (Looking round the horizon.) Yes. Only you and I--I and you--in
the whole wide, wide world until the end. (Sees the line of the Snows.)
How big and quiet the hills look! D'you think they care for us?

CAPT. G. 'Can't say I've consulted em particularly. I care, and that's
enough for me.

MRS. G. (Drawing nearer to him.) Yes, now--but afterward. What's that
little black blur on the Snows?

CAPT. G. A snowstorm, forty miles away. You'll see it move, as the wind
carries it across the face of that spur and then it will be all gone.

MRS. G. And then it will be all gone. (Shivers.)

CAPT. G. (Anxiously.) Not chilled, pet, are you? Better let me get
your cloak.

MRS. G. No. Don't leave me, Phil. Stay here. I believe I am afraid. Oh,
why are the hills so horrid! Phil, promise me that you'll always love
me.

CAPT. G. What's the trouble, darling? I can't promise any more than I
have; but I'll promise that again and again if you like.

MRs. G. (Her head on his shoulder.) Say it, then--say it! N-no--don't!
The--the--eagles would laugh. (Recovering.) My husband, you've married a
little goose.

CAPT. G. (Very tenderly.) Have I? I am content whatever she is, so long
as she is mine.

MRS. G. (Quickly.) Because she is yours or because she is me mineself?

CAPT. G. Because she is both. (Piteously.) I'm not clever, dear, and I
don't think I can make myself understood properly.

MRS. G. I understand. Pip, will you tell me something?

CAPT. G. Anything you like. (Aside.) I wonder what's coming now.

MRS. G. (Haltingly, her eyes 'owered.) You told me once in the old
days--centuries and centuries ago--that you had been engaged before. I
didn't say anything--then.

CAPT. G. (Innocently.) Why not?

MRS. G. (Raising her eyes to his.) Because--because I was afraid of
losing you, my heart. But now--tell about it--please.

CAPT. G. There's nothing to tell. I was awf'ly old then--nearly two and
twenty--and she was quite that.

MRS. G. That means she was older than you. I shouldn't like her to have
been younger. Well?

CAPT. G. Well, I fancied myself in love and raved about a bit, and--oh,
yes, by Jove! I made up poetry. Ha! Ha!

MRS. G. You never wrote any for me! What happened?

CAPT. G. I came out here, and the whole thing went phut. She wrote to