By the time he joined her again, she had driven away her own. The sky was changing mysteriously. The purple depth was lightening, the stars receding.
"We must hurry," said Nick. "The G.o.ds won"t wait for us."
But they were ready first after all, and the morning found them high up the mountainside with their faces to the east.
Sudden and splendid, the sun flashed up over the edge of the world, and the snow of the mountain crests shone in roselit glory for a few magic seconds, then shimmered to gold--glittering as the peaks of Paradise.
They did not speak at all, for the ground beneath their feet was holy, and all things that called for speech were left behind. Only as dawn became day--as the sun-G.o.d mounted triumphant above the waiting earth--the man"s arm tightened about the woman, and his flickering eyes grew steadfast and reverent as the eyes of one who sees a vision....
""Prophet and priestess we came--back from the dawning,"" quoted Nick, under his breath.
Muriel uttered a long, long sigh, and turned her face against her husband"s shoulder.
His lips were on her forehead for a moment; the next he was peering into her face with his usual cheery grin.
"Care to hear my piece of news?" he questioned.
She looked at him eagerly. "Oh, Nick, not the mail!"
He nodded. "Runner came in late last night. You were asleep and dreaming of me. I hadn"t the heart to wake you."
She laughed and blushed. "As if I should! Do you really imagine that I never think of anyone else? But go on. What news?"
He pulled out two letters. "One from Olga, full of adoration, bless her funny heart, and containing also a rude message from Jim to the effect that Redlands is going to rack and ruin for want of a tenant while we are philandering on the outside edge of civilisation doing no good to anybody. No good indeed! I"ll punch his head for that some day. But I suppose we really ought to be thinking of Home before long, eh, sweetheart?"
She a.s.sented with a smile and a sigh. "I am sure we ought. Dr. Jim is quite right. We must come back to earth again, my eagle and I."
Nick kissed her hair. "It"s been a gorgeous flight hasn"t it? We"ll do it again--heaps of times--before we die."
"If nothing happens to prevent," said Muriel.
He frowned. "What do you say that for? Are you trying to be like Lady Ba.s.sett? Because it"s a vain aspiration, so you may as well give it up at the outset."
"Nick, how absurd you are!" There was a slight break in the words.
"I--I had almost forgotten there was such a person. No, I said it because--because--well, anything might happen, you know."
"Such as?" said Nick.
"Anything," she repeated almost inaudibly.
Nick pondered this for a moment. "Is it a riddle?" he asked.
She did not answer him. Her face was hidden.
He waited a little. Then, "I shall begin to guess directly," he said.
She uttered a m.u.f.fled laugh, and clung to him with a sudden, pa.s.sionate closeness. "Nick, you--you humbug! You know!"
Nick tossed his letters on the ground and held her fast. "My precious girl, you gave the show away not ten seconds ago by that blush of yours. There! Don"t be so absurdly shy! You can"t be shy with me. Look at me, sweet. Look up and tell me it"s true!"
She turned her face upwards, quivering all over, yet laughing tremulously. "Yes, Nick, really, really!" she told him. "Oh, my darling, are you glad?"
"Am I glad?" said Nick, and laughed at her softly. "I"m the happiest man on earth. I shall go Home now without a pang, and so will you.
We have got to feather the nest, you know. That"ll be fun, eh, sweetheart?"
Her eyes answered him more convincingly than any words. They seemed to have caught some of the sunshine that made the world around them so glorious.
Some time elapsed before she remembered the neglected correspondence.
Time was of no account up there among the mountains.
"The other letter, Nick, you didn"t tell me about it. I fancied you might have heard from Will Musgrave."
"So I have," said Nick. "You had better read it. There"s a line for you inside. It"s all right. Daisy has got a little girl, both doing splendidly; Daisy very happy, Will nearly off his head with joy."
Muriel was already deep in Will"s ecstatic letter. She read it with smiling lips and tearful eyes. At the end in pencil she found the line that was for her.
"Tell Muriel that all"s well with me, and I want you both for Christmas.--Daisy."
Muriel looked up. "I promised to spend Christmas with them, Nick."
Nick smiled upon her quizzically. "By a strange coincidence, darling, so did I. I should think under the circ.u.mstances we might go together, shouldn"t you?"
She drew his hand to her cheek. "We will go to them for Christmas then. And after that straight Home. Tell Dr. Jim when you write.
But--Nick--I think we should like to feather the nest all ourselves, don"t you?"
"Why, rather!" said Nick. "We"ll do it together--just you and I."
"Just you and I," she repeated softly.
Later, hand in hand, they looked across the valley to the shining crags that glistened spear-like in the sun.
A great silence lay around them--a peace unspeakable--that those silver crests lifted into the splendour of Infinity.
They stood alone together--above the world--with their faces to the mountains.
And thus standing with the woman he loved, Nick spoke, briefly--it seemed lightly--yet with a certain tremor in his voice.
"Horses," he said--"and chariots--of fire!" And Muriel looked at him with memory and understanding in her eyes.
THE END