Chapter VII · (continued 2)
Reading edition
"What is your magic key?"
"Sylvia, I'm afraid to ask you to marry me, but will you?"
She stared at him; then she saw his eyes, and for a long while she was crying in his arms with happiness.
"My dear, my dear, you've lost your yellow shawl in the wreck."
"The mermaids can have it," she murmured. "I shall wrap up the rest of my memories in you."
Then she stopped in sudden affright.
"But, Michael, how can I marry you? I haven't told you anything really about myself."
"Foolish one, you've told me everything that matters in these two months of the most perfect companionship possible for human beings."
"Companionship?" she echoed, looking at him fiercely. "And cousinship, eh?"
"No, no, my dear, you can't frighten me any longer," he laughed. "Surely, telling things belongs to the companionship of a life together—love has no words except when one is still very young and eloquent."
"But, Michael," she went on, "all these nine years of mystical speculation, are they going to end in the commonplace of marriage?"
"It won't be commonplace, and besides, the war isn't over yet, and after the war there will be an empty world to fill with all we have learned. Ah, how poor old Guy would have loved to fill it with his Spanish castles."
"It seems wrong for us two up here to be so happy," Sylvia sighed.
"This is just a halcyon day, but there will soon be stormy days again."
"You mean you'll go back now to—" She stopped in a desperate apprehension. "But, of course, we can't live forever in these days of war between a blue sky and a blue sea. Yet, somehow, oh, my dearest and dearest, I don't believe I shall lose you."
Like birds calling to one another, in the green thickets far away two bells tinkled their monotone; and a small gray craft flying the white ensign glided over the charmed sea toward Samothrace.
THE END
BOOKS BY BASIL KING
THE CITY OF COMRADES
ABRAHAM'S BOSOM
THE HIGH HEART
THE LIFTED VEIL
THE INNER SHRINE
THE WILD OLIVE
THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT
THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS
THE WAY HOME
THE LETTER OF THE CONTRACT
IN THE GARDEN OF CHARITY
THE STEPS OF HONOR
LET NOT MAN PUT ASUNDER
HARPER & BROTHERS NEW YORK [ESTABLISHED 1817] LONDON
BOOKS BY ZANE GREY
THE U. P. TRAIL
THE DESERT OF WHEAT
WILDFIRE
THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT
RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE
DESERT GOLD
THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS
THE LONE STAR RANGER
THE RAINBOW TRAIL
THE BORDER LEGION
KEN WARD IN THE JUNGLE
THE YOUNG LION HUNTER
THE YOUNG FORESTER
THE YOUNG PITCHER
HARPER & BROTHERS NEW YORK [ESTABLISHED 1817] LONDON
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
when she was presented to Madema=>when she was presented to Madame
the last hour than in all the year that had gone by since=>the last hour than in all the years that had gone by since
The Austrains are advancing more rapidly=>The Austrians are advancing more rapidly
even the envelop that Hazlewood had given to her=>even the envelope that Hazlewood had given to her
will be delighted to drink a cockataila with him=>will be delighted to drink a cockatail with him
The French spelling & punctuation have not been corrected.