Athalie

"Can you ask?"

"Yes.... Because of the years ahead of us. I think there are to be

many--for us both. The future is so bewildering--like a tangled and

endless forest, and very dim to see in.... But sometimes there comes a

rift in the foliage--and there is a glimpse of far skies shining. And

for a moment one--'sees clearly'--into the depths--a little way....

And surmises something of what remains unseen. And imagines more,

perhaps.... I wonder if you love me--enough."

"Dearest--dearest--"

"Let it remain unsaid, Clive. A girl must learn one day. But never

from the asking. And the same sun shall continue to rise and set,

whatever her answer is to be; and the moon, too; and the stars shall

remain unchanged--whatever changes us. How still the woods are--as

still as dreams."

[Illustration: "She suddenly sat upright, resting one slender hand on

his shoulder."] She lifted her head, looked at him, smiled, then, freeing herself,

sprang to her feet and stood a moment drawing her slim hand across her

eyes.

"I shall have a tennis court, Clive. And a canoe on Spring Pond....

What kind of puppy was that I said I wanted?"

"One which would grow up with proper fear and respect for Hafiz," he

said, smilingly, perplexed by the rapid sequence of her moods.

"A collie?"

"If you like."

"I wonder," she murmured, "whether they are safe for children--" She

looked up laughing: "Isn't it odd! I simply cannot seem to free my

mind of children whenever I think about that house."

As they moved along the path toward the new home he said: "What was it

you saw in the woods?"

"Children."

"Were they--real?"

"No."

"Had they died?"

"They have not yet been born," she said in a low voice.

"I did not know you could see such things."

"I am not sure that I can. It is very difficult for me, sometimes, to

distinguish between vividly imaginative visualisation and--other

things."

Walking back through the soft afternoon light the girl tried to tell

him all that she knew about herself and her clairvoyance--strove to

explain, to make him understand, and, perhaps, to understand herself.

But after a while silence intervened between them; and when they spoke

again they spoke of other things. For the isolation of souls is a

solitude inviolable; there can be no intimacy there, only the longing

for it--the craving, endless, unsatisfied.