“Ah!  But you came to me,” he said.

A sudden gleam of mirth shot through her woe.  “My!  That was a night, Billikins!” she said.  And then the clouds came back upon her, overwhelming her.  “Oh, what is there to laugh at?  How could I laugh?”

He lifted the glass he held and drank from it, then offered it to her.  “Drink with me!” he said.

She took, not the glass, but his wrist, and drank with her eyes upon his face.

When she had finished she drew his arms about her, and lay against his shoulder with closed eyes for a space, saying no word.

At last, with a little murmuring sigh, she spoke.  “What is going to happen, Billikins?”

“God knows,” he said.

But there was no note of dismay in his voice.  His hold was strong and steadfast.

She stirred a little.  “Do you believe in God?” she asked him, for the second time.

He had not answered her before; he answered her now without hesitation.  “Yes, I do.”

She lifted her head to look at him.  “I wonder why?” she said.

He was silent for a moment; then, “Just because I can hold you in my arms,” he said, “and feel that nothing else matters—­or can matter again.”

“You really feel that?” she said, quickly.  “You really love me, dear?”

“That is love,” he said, simply.

“Oh, darling!” Her breath came fast.  “Then, if they try to take me from you—­you will really do it—­you won’t be afraid?”

“Do what?” he questioned, sombrely.

“Kill me, Billikins,” she answered, swiftly.  “Kill me—­sooner than let me go.”

He bent his head.  “Yes,” he said.  “My love is strong enough for that.”

“But what would you do—­afterwards?” she breathed, her lips raised to his.

A momentary surprise showed in his eyes.  “Afterwards?” he questioned.

“After I was gone, darling?” she said, anxiously.

A very strange smile came over Merryon’s face.  He pressed her to him, his eyes gazing deep into hers.  He kissed her, but not passionately, rather with reverence.

“Your afterwards will be mine, dear, wherever it is,” he said.  “If it comes to that—­if there is any going—­in that way—­we go together.”

The anxiety went out of her face in a second.  She smiled back at him with utter confidence.  “Oh, Billikins!” she said.  “Oh, Billikins, that will be great!”

She went back into his arms, and lay there for a further space, saying no word.  There was something sacred in the silence between them, something mysterious and wonderful.  The drip, drip, drip of the ceaseless rain was the only sound in the stillness.  They seemed to be alone together in a sanctuary that none other might enter, husband and wife, made one by the Bond Imperishable, waiting together for deliverance.  They were the most precious moments that either had ever known, for in them they were more truly wedded in spirit than they had ever been before.