vering, as though the issue
was of more than life or death:

"Not this?" She held up a corner of the shroud, and as she saw my face
and realized the answer before I spoke, went on: "With all it implies?"

"Not if it were wrought of the cerecloths of the damned!" There was a
long pause. Her voice was more resolute when she spoke again. It rang.
Moreover, there was in it a joyous note, as of one who feels new hope:

"But do you know what men say? Some of them, that I am dead and buried;
others, that I am not only dead and buried, but that I am one of those
unhappy beings that may not die the common death of man. Who live on a
fearful life-in-death, whereby they are harmful to all. Those unhappy
Un-dead whom men call Vampires--who live on the blood of the living, and
bring eternal damnation as well as death with the poison of their
dreadful kisses!

"I know what men say sometimes," I answered. "But I know also what my
own heart says; and I rather choose to obey its calling than all the
voices of the living or the dead. Come what may, I am pledged to you.
If it be that your old life has to be rewon for you out of the very jaws
of Death and Hell, I shall keep the faith I have pledged, and that here I
pledge again!" As I finished speaking I sank on my knees at her feet,
and, putting my arms round her, drew her close to me. Her tears rained
down on my face as she stroked my hair with her soft, strong hand and
whispered to me:

"This is indeed to be one. What more holy marriage can God give to any
of His creatures?" We were both silent for a time.

I think I was the first to recover my senses. That I did so was manifest
by my asking her: "When may we meet again?"--a thing I had never
remembered doing at any of our former partings. She answered with a
rising and falling of the voice that was just above a whisper, as soft
and cooing as the voice of a pigeon:

"That will be soon--as soon as I can manage it, be sure. My dear, my
dear!" The last four words of endearment she spoke in a low but
prolonged and piercing tone which made me thrill with delight.

"Give me some token," I said, "that I may have always close to me to ease
my aching heart till we meet again, and ever after, for love's sake!"
Her mind seemed to leap to understanding, and with a purpose all her own.
Stooping for an instant, she tore off with swift, strong fingers a
fragment of her shroud. This, having kissed it, she handed to me,
whispe