He stretched out his arms towards her with the one word, "Kathie!"
She had already risen, a great, unspeakable joy illumining her face, but
at the sound of that name, vibrating with the pent-up emotion, the
concentrated love of all the years of their separation, she came swiftly
forward, her bosom palpitating, her eyes shining with the love called
forth by his cry. He stepped through the low window, within the room. In
an instant his arms were clasped about her, and, holding her close to
his breast, his dark eyes told her more eloquently than words of his
heart's hunger for her, while in her eyes and in the blushes running
riot in her cheeks he read his welcome.
He kissed her hair and brow, with a sort of reverence; then, hearing
voices in the corridor and rooms adjoining, he seized a light wrap from
a chair near by and threw it about her shoulders.
"Come outside, sweetheart," he whispered, and drawing her arm within his
own led her out onto the veranda and down the path along which he had
just come. In the first transport of their joy they were silent, each
almost fearing to break the spell which seemed laid upon them. The moon
had risen, transforming the sombre scene to one of beauty, but to them
Love's radiance had suddenly made the world inexpressibly fair; the very
flowers as they passed breathed perfume like incense in their path, and
the trees whispered benedictions upon them.
Darrell first broke the silence. "I would have been in Ophir to-night,
but some mysterious, irresistible impulse led me to stop here. Did you
weave a spell about me, you sweet sorceress?" he asked, gazing tenderly
into her face.
"I think it must have been some higher influence than mine," she
replied, with sweet gravity, "for I was also under the spell. I supposed
you many miles away, yet, as I sang to-night, it seemed as though you
were close to me, as though if I turned I should see you--just as I
did," she concluded, with a radiant smile. "But how did you find me?"
"How does the night-bird find its mate?" he queried, in low, vibrant
tones; then, as her color deepened, he continued, with passionate
earnestness,-"I was here, where we are now, my very soul crying out for you, when I
heard your song. It thrilled me; I felt as though waking from a dream,
but I knew my love was near. Down through the years I heard her soul
calling mine; following that call, I found my love, and listening, heard
the very words which my own heart had been repeating over and over to
itself, alone and in the darkness."
Almost unconsciously they had stopped at a turn in the path. Darrell
paused a moment, for tears were trembling on the golden lashes. Drawing
her closer, he whispered,-"Kathie, do you remember our parting on the 'Divide'?"