But It had happened as
they said it would. He had not ceased--but something else had. Something
had ceased.
It was the next evening before I came out on the terrace again. The day
had been more exquisite and the sunset more wonderful than before. Mrs.
MacNairn was sitting by her son's side in the bedroom whose windows
looked over the moor. I am not going to say one word of what had come
between the two sunsets. Mrs. MacNairn and I had clung--and clung. We
had promised never to part from each other. I did not quite know why I
went out on the terrace; perhaps it was because I had always loved to
sit or stand there.
This evening I stood and leaned upon the balustrade, looking out far,
far, far over the moor. I stood and gazed and gazed. I was thinking
about the Secret and the Hillside. I was very quiet--as quiet as the
twilight's self. And there came back to me the memory of what Hector had
said as we stood on the golden patch of gorse when the mist had for
a moment or so blown aside, what he had said of man's awakening, and,
remembering all the ages of--childish, useless dread, how he would
stand-- I did not turn suddenly, but slowly. I was not startled in the
faintest degree. He stood there close to me as he had so often stood.
And he stood--and smiled.
I have seen him many times since. I shall see him many times again.
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