"EDRIS!"--In a trance of passionate awe and rapture he caught her hand,--the warm, delicate hand that yielded to his strong clasp in submissive tenderness,--pulsations of terror, pain, and wild joy, all commingled, rushed through him,--with adoring, wistful gaze he scanned every feature of that love-smiling countenance,--a countenance no longer lustrous with Heaven's blinding glory, but only most maiden-like and innocently fair,--dazzled, perplexed, and half afraid, he could not at once grasp the true comprehension of his ineffable delight! He had no doubt of her identity--he knew her well! she was his own heartworshipped Angel,--but on what errand had she wandered out of paradise? Had she come once more, as on the Field of Ardath, to comfort him for a brief space with the beauty of her visible existence, or did she bring from Heaven the warrant for his death?
"Edris!" he said, as softly as one may murmur a prayer, "Edris, my life, my love! Speak to me again! make me sure that I am not dreaming! Tell me where I have failed in my sworn faith since we parted; teach me how I must still further atone! Is this the hour appointed for my spirit's ransom?--has this dear and sacred hand I hold, brought me my quittance of earth?--and have I so soon won the privilege to die?"
As he spoke, she rose and stood erect, with all the glistening light of the stained window falling royally about her,--and he obeying her mute gesture, rose also and faced her in wondering ecstasy, half expecting to see her vanish suddenly in the sun-rays that poured through the Cathedral, even as she had vanished before like a white cloud absorbed in clear space. But no! She remained quiet as a tame bird,--her eyes met his with beautiful trust and tenderness,--and when she answered him, her low, sweet accents thrilled to his heart with a pathetic note of HUMAN affection, as well as of angelic sympathy!
"Theos, my Beloved, I am ALL THINE!" she said, a holy rapture vibrating through her exquisite voice.--"Thine now, in mortal life as in immortal!--one with thee in nature and condition,--pent up in perishable clay, even as thou art,--subject to sorrow, and pain, and weariness,--willing to share with thee thine earthly lot,--ready to take my part in thy grief or joy! By mine own choice have I come hither,--sinless, yet not exempt from sin, but safe in Christ! Every time thou hast renounced the desire of thine own happiness, so much the nearer hast thou drawn me to thee; every time thou hast prayed God for my peace, rather than thine own, so much the closer has my existence been linked with thine! And now, O my Poet, my lord, my king!--we are together forever more,--together in the brief Present, as in the eternal Future!-- the solitary heaven-days of Edris are past, and her mission is not Death, but Love!"