The Brimming Cup

"Everybody's got to lean on his own strength, sooner or later," he told

her with a touch of grimness.

"You just won't be romantic!" she cried admiringly.

"I really love you, Marise," he answered profoundly; and on this

rock-like assurance she sank down with a long breath of trust.

* * * * *

The sun was dipping into the sea now, emblazoning the sky with a last

flaming half-circle of pure color, but the light had left the dusky

edges of the world. Already the far mountains were dimmed, and the

plain, passing from one deep twilight color to another more somber, was

quietly sinking into darkness as into the strong loving arms of ultimate

dissolution.

The girl spoke in a dreamy twilight tone, "Neale dear, this is not a

romantic idea . . . honestly, I do wish we could both die right here and

never go down to the plain any more. Don't you feel that? Not at all?"

His voice rang out, resonant and harsh as a bugle-note, "No, I do not,

not at all, not for a single moment. I've too much ahead of me to feel

that. And so have you!"

"There comes the cable-car, climbing up to get us," she said faintly.

"And we will go down from this high place of safety into that dark

plain, and we will have to cross it, painfully, step by step. Dare you

promise me we will not lose our way?" she challenged him.

"I don't promise you anything about it," he answered, taking her hand in

his. "Only I'm not a bit afraid of the plain, nor the way that's before

us. Come along with me, and let's see what's there."

"Do you think you know where we are going, across that plain?" she asked

him painfully; "even where we are to try to go?"

"No, I don't know, now," he answered undismayed. "But I think we will

know it as we go along because we will be together."

* * * * *

The darkness, folding itself like a velvet mantle about the far

mountains, deepened, and her voice deepened with it. "Can you even

promise that we won't lose each other there?" she asked somberly.

At this he suddenly took her into his arms, silently, bending his face

to hers, his insistent eyes bringing hers up to meet his gaze. She could

feel the strong throbbing of his heart all through her own body.

She clung to him as though she were drowning. And indeed she felt that

she was. Life burst over them with a roar, a superb flooding tide on

whose strong swelling bosom they felt themselves rising, rising

illimitably.