with grass and wild flowers. Through this a tiny stream rushes in wet
weather, or in dry trickles down the steep incline. This is the natural
or main division between the geological formations; for on either side
of it is a different kind of rock--it was here that I expected to find
that the treasure cave was situated. It had been of course impossible
for me, though I had had a compass with me, to fix exactly the windings
of the cave. I knew, however, that the general trend was to the right;
we must, therefore, have passed behind the treasure cave and come into
the region of red granite. I began to have an idea, or rather the
rudiment of one, that later on we should have to go back on our tracks.
Inasmuch as my own house stood on the gneiss formation, we should have
to find whereabout in the cave windings the red and the black rocks
joined. From this point we might be able to make new and successful
progress towards discovery of the treasure itself. In the meantime I was
content to linger a few minutes in the great cavern. It was evident that
Marjory was in love with it, and was at present in a whirl of delight.
And, after all, she was my world, and her happiness my sunshine. I fully
realised in the delightful passages of our companionship the truth of
the lover's prayer in Herrick's pretty poem.
"Give me but what this Ribbon bound,
Take all the rest the sun goes round."
Every day, every hour, seemed to me to be revealing new beauties of my
wife's character and nature. She was herself becoming reconciled to our
new relationship; and in the confidence of her own happiness, and in her
trust of her husband, the playful and sweet sides of her nature were
gaining a new development. I could not help feeling at times that all
was going on for the best; that the very restraint of the opening of
our married life was formative of influence for good on us both. If
all young husbands and wives could but understand the true use of the
old-fashioned honeymoon, the minute knowledge of character coming in
moments of unconscious self-revelation, there might be more answers
in the negative to the all important nineteenth century philosophical
query, "Is marriage a failure?" It was evident that Marjory was
reluctant to leave the cave. She lingered and lingered; at last in
obedience to a command of hers, conveyed--for she said nothing--in some
of those subtle feminine ways, which, though I did not understand their
methods, I was beginning to learn to obey, I lit a torch. Holding it
aloft, and noticing with delight how the light danced in my wife's
beautiful eyes as she clapped her hands joyously with the overt pleasure
of a child, I said:
"Her Majesty wishes to inspect her new kingdom. Her slave awaits her
pleasure!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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