"Is it then true? Is it then true?...
"Is it then true that I have lost my happiness--lost my happiness for ever?
"Is it then true that with my own hands I took and burnt my wonderful dream-palace, and let go from me the divine Queen"s Daughter whom I had myself bewitched, once on a time, years ago? Is it then so? Is it so?
Maybe it is not so? Perhaps I have come in time? "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse."" ...
I sat at the open window for a long time on this night. And I exchanged whispered secrets with the silent, soft, warm early spring night that was full--strangely full--of secrets and mysteries....
On this night, I made a discovery--
That I loved Busie with that holy, burning love which is so wonderfully described in our "Song of Songs." Big fiery letters seemed to carve themselves out before my eyes. They formed themselves into the words which I had only just recited, my father and I--the words of the "Song of Songs." I read the carved words, letter by letter.
"Love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame."
On this night, I sat down at my open window, and I asked of the night which was full of secrets and mysteries, that she should tell me this secret:
"Is it true that I have lost Busie for ever? Is it then true?" ...
But she is silent--this night of secrets and mysteries. And the secret must remain a secret for me--until the morrow.
"Tomorrow," Busie had said to me, "we will talk."
Ah! Tomorrow we will talk!...
Only let the night go by--only let it vanish, this night!
This night! This night!
THE END
_NEW BORZOI NOVELS_
_SPRING, 1922_
WANDERERS _Knut Hamsun_
MEN OF AFFAIRS _Roland Pertwee_
THE FAIR REWARDS _Thomas Beer_
I WALKED IN ARDEN _Jack Crawford_
GUEST THE ONE-EYED _Gunnar Gunnarsson_
THE GARDEN PARTY _Katherine Mansfield_
THE LONGEST JOURNEY _E. M. Forster_
THE SOUL OF A CHILD _Edwin Bjorkman_
CYTHEREA _Joseph Hergesheimer_
EXPLORERS OF THE DAWN _Mazo de la Roche_
THE WHITE KAMI _Edward Alden Jewell_