"What?"
"The day's duty, always; the thing that lies nearest your hand. You know, I've begun to see that it isn't so much our business to be happy as it is to do the things we are meant to do. And I think, too, that happiness comes most surely to those who do not go out in search of it, but do their work patiently, and wait for it to come."
"That may be true for others, but not for us. What happiness is there in the world for me, apart from you?"
"Memory," she reminded him gently. "We've had this much and nobody can take it away from us."
Memories "But even this will hurt, heart's dearest, when we see each other no more."
"Not always." As she spoke, she sat down on the ground and leaned back against a tree. He dropped down beside her, slipped his arm around her, and drew her head to his shoulder, softly kissing her hair.
"I remember everything," she went on, "from the time you met me at the station. I can see you now as you came toward me, and that memory is all by itself, for nobody at the very first meeting looks the same as afterward. There is always some subtle change--I don't know why. Do I look the same to you now as I did then?"
"You've always been the most beautiful thing in the world to me, since the first moment I saw you."
"No, not the first moment."
"When was it, then, darling?"
"The first night, when I came down to dinner, in that pale green satin gown. Don't you remember?"
"As if I could ever forget!"
"And you thought I looked like a tiger-lily."
"Did I?"
"Yes, but you didn't say it and I was glad, for so many other men had said it before."
"Perhaps it was because, past all your splendour, I saw you--the one perfect and peerless woman God made for me and sent to me too late."
Kisses
"Not too late for the best of it, dear."
"What else do you remember?"
"Everything. I haven't forgotten a word nor a look nor a single kiss. The strange sweet fires in your eyes, the clasp of your arms around me, your lips on mine, the nights we've lain awake with love surging from heart to heart and back again--it's all strung for me into a rosary of memories that nothing can ever take away."