"Was my self-recrimination ever a bond between us? I can scarce believe my ears upon hearing such a thing from your lips! Love has ever been our bond, Lily. That and nothing else; not guilt, nor pity, nor even the sanctification of our union by marriage!
"In the course of the union between man and woman, but for a perverse desire to hang on to such a thing, discord is otherwise a fleeting thing that should pass and be left behind in its wake, even as a relationship will change and grow, and deal with each new obstacle as it presents itself! Those relationships bound only by threads of discontent should indeed be ended, but if such has become the manner between ourselves, then it is a revelation to me! Or-" his voice broke, and for a
moment he found that he could not speak. "Or do you no longer love me?"
For a long moment, Lily closed her eyes against the pain she had caused. Yet at the same moment came unbidden the memory of her premonition, that of herself kneeling upon some distant shore, her slain husband's head pillowed on her lap. With a violent effort of will, she forced herself to tell him of her vision.
In a choked voice, she said, "Anest . . . I have seen an image of our future together. In it, we are in some far-off place, on the shore of a sea; we are on an island, I think, and . . . and I am alone . . . I am alone because you are slain-"