room for the archnesses and coynesses of
ordinary lovemaking. All that was not simple truth fell away from them
both like tawdry ornaments, for which there was no use in that sad
place. Soul to soul, unseparated by even the flimsiest veil of
conventionality, of custom; soul to soul, clear-visioned, steadfast, as
those may be who are quietly watching the approach of death, they looked
into each other's eyes and knew that they were alone, he and she,
against the world. To cleave to one another, to stand together, he and
she, against the whole world,--that was what their betrothal meant.
Axel, cut off for ever from his kind if he should not be able to clear
himself, Anna, cutting herself off for ever to follow him. Her feet had
found the right path at last. Her eyes were open. As two friends on the
eve of a battle in which both must fight and whose end may be death, or
as two friends starting on a long journey, whose end too, after tortuous
ways of suffering, may well be death, they quietly made their plans,
talked over what was best to be done, gravely encouraging each other,
always with the light of perfect trustfulness in their eyes. How strong
they felt together! How able to go fearlessly towards the future to meet
any pain, any sorrow, together! The warder standing by, the miserable
little room, the wretched details of the situation, no longer existed
for either of them. Nothing could harm them, nothing could hurt them any
more, if only they might be together. They were safe within a circle
drawn round them by love--safe, and warm, and blest. So long as he had
her and she him, though they saw how great their misery would be if they
came to be less brave, they could not but believe in the benevolence of
the future, they could not but have hope. If he were sentenced, she
said, what, at the worst, would it mean? Two years', three years',
waiting, and then together for the rest of their life. Was not that
worth looking forward to? Would not that take away every sting? she
asked, her hands on his shoulders, her face beautiful with confidence
and courage. When he told her that she ought not now to cast in her lot
with his, she only smiled, and laid her cheek against his sleeve. All
her childish follies, and incertitudes, and false starts were done with
now. Life had grown suddenly simple. It was to be a cleaving to him till
death. Yet they both knew that when that golden hour was over, and she
must go, the suffering would beg