A frightened cry from the driver, and the grey, terrified by the jerking at his mouth, and the unwonted nature of the road, plunged forward wildly. Losing his balance, Pietro fell over to the side of the line with a groan of terror, and crawled, shrinking, to an iron girder at the side, to which he clung with trembling arms. ‘Sit still, my darling, it’s a fair course and no favour; can’t go wrong, Sweet, there isn’t room to upset; we shall be all right at the end.’ She gave a little shiver and clasped her hands tightly round his neck. ‘Courage, sweetheart; we’ve laughed the day through, and we’ll laugh it through to the finish; is it not so, O my love?’ The darkness closed in, the horse plunged and snorted in his mad career, the carriage rocked and rattled fearfully. He strained her close to him with a laugh, looking with eyes of love into her face,--and the same sweet look of rest and faith was upon it. ‘Hast thou been happy all this long day, child?’ he said. ‘Ay--ah! How happy!! There is no telling.’ Then suddenly her face changed; over it closed the grim shadow of the morning, and even in that moment of fear and excitement a black reaction was upon her. With a low moan she whispered: ‘My own, I want to die now, _now_, with thee in my arms, thy face to me, thy lips to mine, and no one to see but the sky and the lake; I can’t face to-morrow and the ending--I can’t--I can’t!’ The passionate whisper rose into a cry, the breathing choked in a sob, and the calm of her face broke, and vanished suddenly, as the calm of the great lake breaks and vanishes before the icy blast sweeping down the mountain gully. For answer he held her closer and closer in his arms. ‘Gold help me! neither can I, thy wish is mine.’... From out of the darkness in front, swelling gradually above the rattling of the carriage and the snorting of the horse, came a muttering sound. ‘The gods are merciful,’ he said; ‘a train’s on us; it’s all over--there will be _no_ ending.’ Nearer and nearer came the terrible roar, stunning all the faculties of heart and brain, and still the maddened horse sprang forward to his doom. With a supreme effort HE tore himself free from the bond of numbness and cried to HER fast in his arms; and through her eyes in that one last look her soul crept to his. ‘Demi-gods to-day! better this ending than to-morrow’s;--if there be a future life, darling, it is ours together--body to body, soul to soul.... One kiss, my darling--closer, closer--ah----’ With a stagger the greedy roar fled past into the purple night, its hungering stilled--and from over the shadowy lake under the watchful and silent stars a requiem chime came floating: [Music] J. Miller & Son, Printers, Edinburgh. Transcriber’s Notes Obvious punctuation errors and omissions have been fixed. Page 117: “annyway there will” changed to “anyway there will”