’Dare I go to her, Wilfrid?  Would it be cruel to go to her?  I wish to speak—­oh, not one word that would betray my knowledge, but to say that I love her.  Do you think I may go?’

’I cannot advise you, Emily.  Wait until the morning and do then what you think best.’

She decided to go.  Beatrice still lived with Mrs. Birks, and it was probable that she would be alone on Sunday morning.  It proved to be so.

Wilfrid waited more than an hour for Emily’s return.  When at length she entered to him, he saw that there was deep content on her countenance.  Emily embraced her husband and laid her head upon his breast.  He could hear her sigh gently.

‘She wishes to see you, Wilfrid.’

‘She received you kindly?’

’I will tell you all when I have had time to think of it.  But she was sorry you did not come with me.  Will you go?  She will be alone this afternoon.’

They held each other in silence.  Then Emily, raising an awed face, asked softly: 

’Where does she find her strength?  Is her nature so spotless that self-sacrifice is her highest joy?  Wilfrid, I could have asked pardon at her feet; my heart bled for her.’

’Dearest, you least of all should wonder at the strength which comes of high motive.’

’Oh, but to surrender you to another and to witness that other’s happiness!  Was not my self-denial perhaps a form of selfishness?  I only shrank from love because I dreaded the reproaches of my own heart; I did good to no one, was only anxious to save myself.  She—­I dare not think of it!  My nature is so weak.  Take your love from me and you take my life.’

Wilfrid’s heart leaped with the wild joy of a mountain torrent.

‘She will not always be alone,’ he said, perhaps with the readiness of the supremely happy to prophesy smooth things for all.  There came the answer of gentle reproach: 

‘After loving you, Wilfrid?’

’Beautiful, that is how it seems to you.  There is second love, often truer than the first.’

’Then the first was not love indeed!  If I had never seen you again, what meaning would love have ever had for me apart from your name?  I only dreamed of it till I knew you, then it was love first and last.  Wilfrid, my own, my husband—­my love till I die!’ ....