Page:Restless Earth.djvu/226

“Please, Grace———”

Harley lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them gently, as he had done in the days of their courtship. She did not attempt to stay him; but she shook her head and smiled pityingly with her lips.

“I love you to do that, Jimmy,” she said softly.

They were silent for a long time, Harley holding her hands tenderly.

“Perhaps the happy ending is not very far away for all of us,” she said at last, turning her face to the sun.

“What do you mean?” he asked, looking at her sharply, his heart seeming to contract.

“The darkness will grow deeper and eternal for me—soon, Jimmy,” she answered gently; “and I shall go to find Joan.”

He caressed her hands, kissing them again. His eyes suffused and his throat filled.

“Grace, you must not say these things,” he said unsteadily. “The sun will shine upon us both for many years, and our happiness will be fuller because we have suffered. I will never leave you———”

“I know you won’t, Jimmy; and I will not ask you to—although I am blind and the little beauty I had is utterly destroyed. I know you will be true and kind to me, fighting down the thoughts of Pat which will come to you, and—I will be grateful, very grateful. But I shall keep my thoughts upon the happy ending, Jimmy. It may not come to-day, or to-morrow, or for years; but it will come, Jimmy. And I want you to promise me that, when it does come, neither you nor Pat will shun the place where I—where I sleep. For I love you both, dear, as you love both of us.”

Harley could not speak. Emotion choked him.

“Read something to me, Jimmy,” begged Grace lightly, after a long silence.