to which came the following answer:
"Not to-day. Meet me to-morrow at the Dead Church at three o"clock.
--Stella."
It was the only letter that he ever received from her.
That afternoon, December 23, Mr. Fregelius and his daughter moved to the Rectory in a fly that had been especially prepared to convey the invalid without shaking him. Morris did not witness their departure, as the Colonel, either by accident or design, had arranged to go with him on this day to inspect the new buildings which had been erected on the Abbey Farm. Nor, indeed, were the names of the departed guests so much as mentioned at dinner that night. The incident of their long stay at the Abbey, with all its curious complications, was closed, and both father and son, by tacit agreement, determined to avoid all reference to it; at any rate for the present.
The Christmas Eve of that year will long be remembered in Monksland and all that stretch of coast as the day of the "great gale" which wrought so much damage on its sh.o.r.es. The winter"s dawn was of extraordinary beauty, for all the eastern sky might have been compared to one vast flower, with a heart of burnished gold, and sepals and petals of many coloured fires. Slowly from a central point it opened, slowly its splendours spread across the heavens; then suddenly it seemed to wither and die, till where it had been was nothing but ma.s.ses of grey vapour that arose, gathered, and coalesced into an ashen pall hanging low above the surface of the ashen sea. The coastguard, watching the gla.s.s, hoisted their warning cone, although as yet there was no breath of wind, and old sailormen hanging about in knots on the cliff and beach went to haul up their boats as high as they could drag them, knowing that it would blow hard by night.
About mid-day the sea began to be troubled, as though its waves were being pushed on by some force as yet unseen, and before two o"clock gusts of cold air from the nor"east travelled landwards off the ocean with a low moaning sound, which was very strange to hear.
As Morris trudged along towards the Dead Church he noticed, as we do notice such things when our minds are much preoccupied and oppressed, that these gusts were coming quicker and quicker, although still separated from each other by periods of aerial calm. Then he remembered that a great gale had been prophesied in the weather reports, and thought to himself that they portended its arrival.
He reached the church by the narrow spit of sand and shingle which still connected it with the sh.o.r.e, pa.s.sed through the door in the rough brick wall, closing it behind him, and paused to look. Already under that heavy sky the light which struggled through the brine-encrusted eastern window was dim and grey. Presently, however, he discovered the figure of Stella seated in her accustomed place by the desolate-looking stone altar, whereon stood the box containing the aerophone that they had used in their experiments. She was dressed in her dark-coloured ulster, of which the hood was still drawn over her head, giving her the appearance of some cloaked nun, lingering, out of time and place, in the ruined habitations of her worship.
As he advanced she rose and pushed back the hood, revealing the ma.s.ses of her waving hair, to which it had served as a sole covering. In silence Stella stretched out her hand, and in silence Morris took it; for neither of them seemed to find any words. At length she spoke, fixing her sad eyes upon his face, and saying:
"You understand that we meet to part. I am going to London to-morrow; my father has consented."
"That is Christmas Day," he faltered.
"Yes, but there is an early train, the same that runs on Sundays."
Then there was another pause.
"I wish to ask your pardon," he said, "for all the trouble that I have brought upon you."
She smiled. "I think it is I who should ask yours. You have heard of these stories?"
"Yes, my father spoke to me; he told me of his conversation with you."
"All of it?"
"I do not know; I suppose so," and he hung his head.
"Oh!" she broke out in a kind of cry, "if he told you all----"
"You must not blame him," he interrupted. "He was very angry with me. He considered that I had behaved badly to you, and everybody, and I do not think that he weighed his words."
"I am not angry. Now that I think of it, what does it matter? I cannot help things, and the truth will out."
"Yes," he said, quite simply; "we love each other, so we may as well admit it before we part."
"Yes," she echoed, without disturbance or surprise; "I know now--we love each other."
These were the first intimate words that ever pa.s.sed between them; this, their declaration, unusual even in the long history of the pa.s.sions of men and women, and not the less so because neither of them seemed to think its fashion strange.
"It must always have been so," said Morris.
"Always," she answered, "from the beginning; from the time you saved my life and we were together in the boat and--perhaps, who can say?--before. I can see it now, only until they put light into our minds we did not understand. I suppose that sooner or later we should have found it out, for having been brought together nothing could ever have really kept us asunder."
"Nothing but death," he answered heavily.
"That is your old error, the error of a lack of faith," she replied, with one of her bright smiles. "Death will unite us beyond the possibility of parting. I pray G.o.d that it may come quickly--to me, not to you. You have your life to lead; mine is finished. I do not mean the life of my body, but the real life, that within."
"I think that you are right; I grow sure of it. But here there is nothing to be done."
"Of course," she answered eagerly; "nothing. Do you suppose that I wished to suggest such a treachery?"
"No, you are too pure and good."
"Good I am not--who is?--but I believe that I am pure."
"It is bitter," groaned Morris.
"Why so? My heart aches, and yet through the pain I rejoice, because I know that it is well with us. Had you not loved me, then it would have been bitter. The rest is little. What does it matter when and how and where it comes about? To-day we part--for ever in the flesh. You will not look upon this mortal face of mine again."
"Why do you say so?"
"Because I feel that it is true."
He glanced up hastily, and she answered the question in his eyes.
"No--indeed--not that--I never thought of such a thing. I think it a crime. We are bid to endure the burden of our day. I shall go on weaving my web and painting my picture till, soon or late, G.o.d says, "Hold," and then I shall die gladly, yes, very gladly, because the real beginning is at hand."
"Oh! that I had your perfect faith," groaned Morris.
"Then, if you love me, learn it from me. Should I, of all people, tell you what is not true? It is the truth--I swear it is the truth. I am not deceived. I know, I know, I _know_."
"What do you know--about us?"
"That, when it is over, we shall meet again where there is no marriage, where there is nothing gross, where love perfect and immortal reigns and pa.s.sion is forgotten. There that we love each other will make no heart sore, not even hers whom here, perhaps, we have wronged; there will be no jealousies, since each and all, themselves happy in their own way and according to their own destinies, will rejoice in the happiness of others. There, too, our life will be one life, our work one work, our thought one thought--nothing more shall separate us at all in that place where there is no change or shadow of turning. Therefore," and she clasped her hands and looked upwards, her face shining like a saint"s, although the tears ran down it, "therefore, "O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?""
"You talk like one upon the verge of it, who hears the beating of Death"s wings. It frightens me, Stella."
"I know nothing of that; it may be to-night, or fifty years hence--we are always on the verge, and those Wings I have heard from childhood.
Fifty, even seventy years, and after them--all the Infinite; one tiny grain of sand compared to the bed of the great sea, that sea from which it was washed at dawn to be blown back again at nightfall."
"But the dead forget--in that land all things are forgotten. Were you to die I should call to you and you would not answer; and when my time came, I might look for you and never find you."
"How dare you say it? If I die, search, and you shall see. No; do _not_ search, wait. At your death I will be with you."
"Whatever happens in life or death--here or hereafter--swear that you will not forget me, and that you will love me only. Swear it, Stella."
"Come to this altar," she said, when she had thought a moment, "and give me your hand--so. Now, before my Maker and the Presences who surround us, I marry you, Morris Monk. Not in the flesh--with your flesh I have nothing to do--but in the spirit. I take your soul to mine, I give my soul to yours; yours it was from its birth"s day, yours it is, and when it ceases to be yours, let it perish everlastingly."