They looked down where their house would be, near the gate of the coming dawn. And--as two others in such case might have seen--it was as if they were the genii of their own mysterious future, a future whose solution trembled very near. For with the charge of the child had come a courage, even as the dead woman had known, when she thought of her charge of Allen, that she was not afraid to die. "Allen," said Chris, stumblingly, "it don't seem as if we could get like the Howells' an' the Hubbelthwaits and them. Somehow it don't seem as if we _could_!" "No," said Allen, "we couldn't. That's so, ain't it?" Above little John's head their eyes met in a kind of new betrothal, new marriage, new birth. But when he would have driven on, Allen pulled at the reins again, and, "Chrissie," he said suddenly, "if afterwards--there should be anybody--else. I mean for us. Would--would you keep on lovin' this little kiddie, too?" She met his eyes bravely, sweetly. "Well, you Silly," she said, "of course I would!" At which Allen laughed joyously, confidently. "Why, Chris," he cried, "we're married! For always an' always. An' here's this little old man to see to. Who's afraid?" Then they kissed each other above the head of the sleeping child, and drove on toward the village, and toward their waiting house. VIII THE JAVA ENTERTAINMENT When I opened my door this morning, the Outdoors was like a thing coming to meet me. I mean that it was like a person coming to meet me--no, it was like many persons, hand in hand and, so to speak, mind in mind; a great company of whom straightway I became one. I felt that swift, good gladness that _now_ was _now_,--that delicate, fleeting Now, that very coquette of time, given and withdrawn. I remember that I could not soon go to sleep on the night of the day on which I learned that the Hebrew tongue has no present tense. They could not catch at that needle-point of experience, and we can do so. I like to glory in it by myself when no one else is thinking of it; to think aside, as if _to_ Something, that now is being now.... And I long for the time when we shall all know it together, all the time, and understand its potentialities and let it be breath and pulse to keep the Spirit Future alive and pure. It would have been no great wonder if I had been rejoicing past all reason in the moment. For at that very instant came Calliope Marsh, home for the Java entertainment which was set for to-night, and driving to my gate the Sykes's white horse in the post-office store delivery wagon. And as I saw her, so precisely did she look like herself, that I could have believed that Now was not Now, but Then, when first I knew her.