“I cannot answer that. It is predestination. There are some that cannot help but be saved.” She touched his hand. “We are in love with one another, are we not, Ambrose?” He answered, “Yes.” “It took me so long to find out. One could not recognize a happiness that was so wonderful and so close. Why did you not tell me?” “I did not want to plant love in you. I wanted it to come of necessity, from the centre of your being.” “Did it hurt, when you saw me in love with Yuan?” He smiled. “Oh!” she cried, “I love you because you are cold and unmoved and unescapable, like Fate! I love you because you do not desire me and my beauty is nothing to you. I die and am forgotten in the night of your being. You are death and change itself, the beautiful, pitiless universe in which we are all swallowed and become nothing.” “You also,” he answered. “We have eaten the peaches of immortality, you and I, and we are no longer you and I. We have tasted the fruit, the substance of the universe, that is eaten in the endless fields of Nirvana. We are dead, and we can descend into the world like gods, to command and enjoy desire.” “You do desire me?” “Yes, my flower, my insect.” She was in his arms, face to face with his unswerving regard. What she found in his eyes must have contented her. “You understand—everything?” He asked to hear her say “Yes.” “Everything.” “And this time there is nothing to get over?—no repugnance?” Once more she drew up the corners of her mouth, and, “On the contrary,” he heard. He kissed her, and there was that in his embrace to catch away her breath with surprise and joy. When Lord Sombrewater came along the deck and saw them sitting together he was struck by something new in their attitude. An immense and unexpected possibility presented itself to his mind. “What’s this?” he asked, with his swift, birdlike regard. Lychnis told him, and he made no attempt to conceal his satisfaction. “Well, really, this is most gratifying! As you must marry—I suppose you must—some day——” “To-day,” she interpolated. He was somewhat taken aback. “We’ll see—we’ll see. Time enough. But if it must happen, I’d rather a thousand times it was Ambrose than anyone else in the world. Really, very gratifying—very gratifying—and surprising. You old pike! I shall feel that her husband has not taken her away from me—has not——” He coughed. “A half-share, perhaps—really, not more than a half-share. Why, with Ambrose you’ll hardly be married at all.” He beamed, and they exchanged a tingling glance. Then, formally, they received his blessing. “God bless you both—a thousand times. You old pike!” Lord Sombrewater blew his nose and, as a second thought, went off to announce the news to the Sages, and, in due course, to his wife. They sat side by side, and looked at the smooth water and the spring sky, and wondered at the instant and almost intolerable reality of the happiness that was in them. * * * * *