drew far back, with a new timidity, into her
corner. One look she gave of perfect love and confidence. She pressed
his hand and held it, for a moment, against her cheek. But neither of
them spoke. And indeed, what was there to be said? The identification of
their two minds had been full and absolute from the moment of their
first encounter long ago in Chambord. The accidental differences of sex
and age, training, accomplishments, and education had not affected--and
could not affect--a sympathy in temperament which depended--not on the
similarity of opinions--but on a similarity of moral fibre. Many forms
can be cut, by the same hand, from the same piece of marble, and
although one may be a grotesque and the other a cross, one a pursuing
goddess and the other an angel for a tomb, the same substance, light,
touch, and colour will be characteristic of all four. Marriage, at best,
could but give a certain crude emphasis to the strange spiritual bond
which united these two beings. Practical as they both were in the common
affairs of life, they shrank from anything which would promise to
materialise the subtleties of the mind. Some thoughts, they felt, were
as impalpable as sounds, and, just as music ceases to be divine when it
is poured out of some mechanical contrivance, so the mysteries of the
human soul become mere bodily conditions--more or less humiliating--when
demonstrated, catalogued, and legalised. There is nothing modern nor
uncommon in this especial disposition. One may describe it as ascetic,
anaemic, sentimental, hysterical, neurotic; but the men and women who
possess this fragile organism show, as a rule, powers of endurance and a
strength of will by no means characteristic of the average sanguine and
sensual creature who eats, drinks, fights, loves, and does his best in a
world which he calls vile, yet would not renounce for all the ecstasies
of Paradise.

The carriage wheels rolled on--as swift and noiseless as the sand in an
hour-glass. Why was the road so short? Why could they not be carried
thus for ever, tranquil with happiness, wanting nothing, seeking
nothing, bound no-whither? Foolish questions and a foolish longing: yet
happiness consists in being able to formulate wishes with the serene
knowledge that a better wisdom directs their fulfilment. Neither
passers-by nor other vehicles, neither houses nor streets caught the
entranced attention of these young lovers. The delight of being purely
self-absorbe