auty deep down
into themselves ... and were gone.

Realizing in some long-forgotten fashion of childhood the fearful majesty
of the wrath of Jehovah, yet secretly undismayed because each felt so
gloriously lost in their wonderful love, the bodies of Miriam and
Spinrobin dropped instinctively upon their knees, and, still tightly
clasped in one another's arms, bowed their foreheads to the ground,
touching the earth and leaves.

But how long they rested thus upon the heart of the old earth, or
whether they slept, or whether, possibly, the inevitable reaction to all
the overstrain of the past hours led them through a period of
unconsciousness, neither of them quite knew. Nor was it possible for
them to have known, perhaps, that the lonely valley sheltering the House
of Awe, running tongue-like into these desolate hills, had the
unenviable reputation of trembling a little in sympathy with any
considerable shock of earthquake that came to move that portion of the
round globe from her sleep. Of this they knew as little, no doubt, as
they did of the ill-defined line of demarcation between experiences that
are objective, capable of being weighed and measured, and those that are
subjective, taking place--though with convincing authority--only in the
sphere of the mind....

All they do know, and Spinrobin tells it with an expression of supreme
happiness upon his shining round face, is that at length they stirred
as they lay, opened their eyes, turned and looked at one another, then
stood up. On Miriam's hair and lashes lay the message of the dew, and
in her clear eyes all the soft beauty of the stars that had watched
over them.

But the stars themselves had gone. Over the hills ran the colored feet of
the dawn, swift and rosy, touching the spread of heathery miles with the
tints of approaching sunrise. The tops of the leafless trees stirred
gently with a whisper of wind that stole up from the distant sea. The
birds were singing. Over the surface of the old earth flew the magical
thrill of life. It caught these two children-lovers, sweeping them into
each other's arms as with wings.

Out of all the amazing tempest of their recent experiences emerged this
ever-growing splendor of their deep and simple love. The kindly earth
they had chosen beckoned them down into the valley; the awful heaven they
had rejected smiled upon them approvingly, as the old sun topped the
hills and peeped upon them with his glorious eye.

"Come, Mir