During these joyful, hopeful expectations he was walking up and down the room, his eyes dilating with rapture, and Ethel closed the window and joined him. They magnified their joy, they wondered at it, they were sure no one before them had ever loved as they loved. "And we are going to live here, Ethel; going to have our home here! Upon my honor, I cannot speak the joy I feel, but"--and he went impetuously to the piano and opened it--"but I can perhaps sing it-"'There is not a spot in this wide-peopled earth So dear to the heart as the Land of our Birth; 'Tis the home of our childhood, the beautiful spot Which Memory retains when all else is forgot. May the blessing of God ever hallow the sod, And its valleys and hills by our children be trod!
"'May Columbia long lift her white crest o'er the wave, The birthplace of science and the home of the brave. In her cities may peace and prosperity dwell, And her daughters in virtue and beauty excel. May the blessing of God ever hallow the sod, And its valleys and hills by our children be trod.'"
With the patriotic music warbling in his throat he turned to Ethel, and looked at her as a lover can, and she answered the look; and thus leaning toward each other in visible beauty and affection their new life began. Between smiles and kisses they sat speaking, not of the past with all its love and loveliness, but of the high things calling to them from the future, the work and duties of life set to great ends both for public and private good. And as they thus communed Tyrrel took his wife's hand and slowly turned on her finger the plain gold wedding ring behind its barrier of guarding gems.
"Ethel," he said tenderly, "what enchantments are in this ring of gold! What romances I used to weave around it, and, dearest, it has turned every Romance into Reality."
"And, Tyrrel, it will also turn all our Realities into Romances. Nothing in our life will ever become common. Love will glorify everything."
"And we shall always love as we love now?"
"We shall love far better, far stronger, far more tenderly."
"Even to the end of our lives, Ethel?"
"Yes, to the very end."