"Nor I," was the low response. "My heart will beat to its music
forever--it just means you, now--"
For a long time they sat without words, holding each other's hand. The
sun hung a glowing ball of fire on the rim of the far-away hills, and
the shadows of the valley deepened into twilight.
"How wonderful the silence of the plains!" the lover sighed.
"It used to oppress me."
The man nodded.
"And now, I hear the beat of angels' wings and know that God is near--"
"Because we love--" and she laughed for joy.
Again they sat in sweet, brooding silence.
A horseman rode over the hilltop in the glow of the fading sun. From its
summit, he lifted his hand and waved a salute. They looked below, and in
the doorway of a cabin, a young mother stood, a babe in her arms
answering with hand uplifted high above her child.
"What does it matter, dear," she whispered, "a cabin or a palace!"
IX
WAR
Side by side through the still white light of the full moon they rode
home, in each heart the glow of the wonder and joy of Love's first
revelation. Words were an intrusion. The eyes of the soul were seeing
now the hidden things of life.
The gleam of the lights at the Fort brought them sharply out of
dreamland into the world of fact.
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