And she told the dream to me, and in the dream she had seen a tall, dark man, built very big, and dressed in unfamiliar clothing.  And the man had been in a little room, and very sorrowful, and lonesome; and in her dream she had gone nigh to him.

And presently the man made to write, that he might ease him by giving expression to his sorrow; and Naani had been able to read the words that he wrote; though to her waking spirit the language in which they were writ was strange and unknown.  Yet she could not remember what he had writ, save but one short line, and this she had mind of in that he had writ the word Mirdath above.  And she spoke of the strangeness of this thing, that she should dream of this name; but supposed that I had fixed it upon her, by my first callings.

And then did I, with something of a tremble in my spirit, ask Naani to tell me what she remembered of the writing of that big, sorrowful stranger.  And, in a little moment, her far voice said these words all about me: 

    “Dearest, thine own feet tread the world at night—­”

But no more had she memory of.  Yet it was a sufficiency, and I, maybe with a mad, strange triumph in my soul, said unto her with my brain-elements that which remained of those words.  And my spirit felt them strike upon the spirit of Naani, and awake her memory, as with the violence of a blow.  And for a little while she stumbled, dumb before so much newness and certainly.  And her spirit then to waken, and she near wept with the fright and the sudden, new wonder of this thing.

And immediately, all about me there came her voice thrilling, and the voice was the voice of Mirdath, and the voice of Naani; and I heard the tears of her spirit make pure and wonderful the bewildered and growing gladness of her far voice.  And she asked me, as one who had suddenly opened the Gates of Memory, whether she might be truly Mirdath.  And I, utter weak and shaken strangely because of this splendour of fulfilment, could make no instant answer.  And she asked again, but using mine old love-name, and with a sureness in her far voice.  And still I was so strangely dumb, and the blood to thud peculiar in mine ears; and this to pass; and speech to come swift.

And this way to be that meeting of our spirits, across all the everlasting night.

And you shall have for a memory-picture, how that Naani stood there in the world in that far eternity, and, with her spirit having speech with mine, looked back through the part-opened gates of her memory, into the past of this our life and Age.  Yet more than this she saw, and more than was given to me in that Age; for she had memory now and sight of other instances, and of other comings together, which had some confusion and but half-meanings to me.  Yet of this our present Age and life, we spoke as of some yesterday; but very hallowed.

Now, as may be conceived, the wonder of this surety which had come into my life stirred me fiercely to its completion; for all my heart and spirit cried out to be with that one who was Mirdath, and now spoke with the voice of Naani.