new who had made it, that symbol of sacrifice.
Weather-worn and moss-grown, it must have stood for the whole of the
five and twenty years. There was no word, no inscription--only the
cross, but for her it was enough.

"To kiss the cross, Sweetheart, to kiss the cross!" The last measures
of the song reverberated through her memory, as Iris had sung it in her
deep contralto, so long ago.

Sobbing, she knelt, with her lips against the symbol, then suddenly
started to her feet, for there was a step upon the path.

For a blinding instant, they faced each other, unbelieving, then the
Master opened his arms.

"Beloved," he breathed, "is it thou?"

XX

"Mine Brudder's Friend"

That day the Master put aside the garment of his years. The quarter
century that had lain between them like a thorny, upward path was
suddenly blotted out, and only the memory of it remained. Belated, but
none the less keen, the primeval joy came back to him. Youth and love,
the bounding pulse and the singing heart,--they were all his.

It was twilight when they came away from the moss-grown altar in the
forest, his arm around his sweetheart, and the faces of both wet with
happy tears.

"Until to-morrow, mine Liebchen," he said. "How shall I now wait for
that to-morrow when we part no more? The dear God knew. He gave to me
the cutting and the long night that in the end I might deserve thee. He
was making of me an instrument suited to thy little hand." He kissed the
hand as he spoke, and Margaret's eyes filled once more.

Through the mist of her tears she saw the rising moon rocking idly just
above the horizon. "See," said the Master, "it is a new light from the
east, from the same place as thou hast come to me. Many a time have I
watched it, thinking that it also shone on thee; that perhaps thy eyes,
as well as mine, were upon it, and thus, through heaven, we were
united."

"Those whom God hath joined together," murmured Margaret, "let no man
put asunder."

"Those whom God hath joined," returned the Master, reverently, "no man
can put asunder. Dost thou not see? I thought thou hadst forgotten, and
when I go to keep mine tryst with Grief, I find thee there, with thy
lips upon the cross."

"I have never gone before," whispered Margaret. "I could not."

"So? Mine Beloved, I have gone there many times. When mine sorrow has
filled mine old heart to breaking, I have gone there, that I might look
upon thy cross and mine and so gain str