o hear the expression of her wish, but to hear
her use the name of God as she did. I understand now, in the calm of
this place and with the sunlight before me, that my belief as to her
being all woman--living woman--was not quite dead: but though at the
moment my heart did not recognize the doubt, my brain did. And I made up
my mind that we should not part this time until she knew that I had seen
her, and where; but, despite my own thoughts, my outer ears listened
greedily as she went on.

"As for me, you may not find _me_, but _I_ shall find _you_, be sure!
And now we must say 'Good-night,' my dear, my dear! Tell me once again
that you love me, for it is a sweetness that one does not wish to
forego--even one who wears such a garment as this--and rests where I must
rest." As she spoke she held up part of her cerements for me to see.
What could I do but take her once again in my arms and hold her close,
close. God knows it was all in love; but it was passionate love which
surged through my every vein as I strained her dear body to mine. But
yet this embrace was not selfish; it was not all an expression of my own
passion. It was based on pity--the pity which is twin-born with true
love. Breathless from our kisses, when presently we released each other,
she stood in a glorious rapture, like a white spirit in the moonlight,
and as her lovely, starlit eyes seemed to devour me, she spoke in a
languorous ecstasy:

"Oh, how you love me! how you love me! It is worth all I have gone
through for this, even to wearing this terrible drapery." And again she
pointed to her shroud.

Here was my chance to speak of what I knew, and I took it. "I know, I
know. Moreover, I know that awful resting-place."

I was interrupted, cut short in the midst of my sentence, not by any
word, but by the frightened look in her eyes and the fear-mastered way in
which she shrank away from me. I suppose in reality she could not be
paler than she looked when the colour-absorbing moonlight fell on her;
but on the instant all semblance of living seemed to shrink and fall
away, and she looked with eyes of dread as if in I some awful way held in
thrall. But for the movement of the pitiful glance, she would have
seemed of soulless marble, so deadly cold did she look.

The moments that dragged themselves out whilst I waited for her to speak
seemed endless. At length her words came in an awed whisper, so faint
that even in that stilly night I co