"'A race without disease of flesh or brain, shapely and fair, the wedded harmony of form and function. And as I look, life lengthens, joy deepens, and over all in the great dome shines the eternal star of human hope!'" "And love?" she smiled again, a deep and sacred meaning in her words. Within her stirred the universal motherhood, the hope of everything, the call of the unborn, the insistent voice of the race that was to be. "And love!" he answered, his voice now very tender, very grave. Tired, yet strong, he looked upon her. And as he looked his eyes grew deep and eager. Sweet as the honey of Hymettus was the perfume of the orchard, all a powder of white and rosy blooms, among which the bees, pollen-dusted, labored, at their joyous, fructifying task. Fresh, the morning breeze. Clear, warm, radiant, the sun of June; the summer sun uprising far beyond the shining hills. Life everywhere--and love! Love, too, for them. For this man, this woman, love; the mystery, the pleasure and the eternal pain. With his unhurt arm he circled her. He bent, he drew her to him, as she raised her face to his. And for the first time his mouth sought hers. Their lips, long hungry for this madness, met there and blended in a kiss of passion and of joy. BOOK II BEYOND THE GREAT OBLIVION CHAPTER I BEGINNINGS A thousand years of darkness and decay! A thousand years of blight, brutality, and atavism; of Nature overwhelming all man's work, of crumbling cities and of forgotten civilization, of stupefaction, of death! A thousand years of night! Two human beings, all alone in that vast wilderness--a woman and a man. The past, irrevocable; the present, fraught with problems, perils, and alarms; the future--what? A thousand years! Yet, though this thousand years had seemingly smeared away all semblance of the world of men from the cosmic canvas, Allan Stern and Beatrice Kendrick thrilled with as vital a passion as though that vast, oblivious age lay not between them and the time that was. And their long kiss, there in sight of their new home-to-be--alone there in that desolated world--was as natural as the summer breeze, the liquid melody of the red-breast on the blossomy apple-bough above their heads, the white and purple spikes of odorous lilacs along the vine-grown stone wall, the gold and purple dawn now breaking over the distant reaches of the river. Thus were these two betrothed, this sole surviving pair of human beings. Thus, as the new day burned to living flame up the inverted bowl of sky, this woman and this man pledged each other their love and loyalty and trust. Thus they stood together, his left arm about her warm, lithe body, clad as she was only in her tiger-skin. Their eyes met and held true, there in the golden glory of the dawn. Unafraid, she read the message in the depths of his, the invitation, the command; and they both foreknew the future. Beatrice spoke first, flushing a little as she drew toward him.