lainly, as his eyes now
sought the friendly shades of the beeches and the elms yonder in Hyde
Park!--upon the air made denser by the storm, the call of a lonely bird
from one side of the valley. The note was deep and strong and clear,
like the bell-bird of the Australian salt-bush plains beyond the
Darling River, and it rang out across the valley, as though a soul
desired its mate; and then was still. A moment, and there came across
the valley from the other side, stealing deep sweetness from the hollow
rocks, the answer of the bird which had heard her master's call.
Answering, she called too, the viens ici of kindred things; and they
came nearer and nearer and nearer, until at last their two voices were
one.

In that wild space there had been worked out one of the great wonders
of creation, and under the dim lamps of Park Lane, in his black,
shocked mood, Rudyard recalled it all by no will of his own. Upon his
eye and brain the picture had been registered, and in its appointed
time, with an automatic suggestion of which he was ignorant and
innocent, it came to play its part and to transform him.

The thought of it all was like a cool hand laid upon his burning brow.
It gave him a glimpse of the morning of life.

The light was gone from the evening sky: but was it gone forever?

As he entered his house now he saw upon a Spanish table in the big hall
a solitary bunch of white roses--a touch of simplicity in an area of
fine artifice. Regarding it a moment, black thoughts receded, and
choosing a flower from the vase he went slowly up the stairs to
Jasmine's room.

He would give her this rose as the symbol of his faith and belief in
her, and then tell her frankly what he had heard at De Lancy Scovel's
house.

For the moment it did not occur to him that she might not be at home.
It gave him a shock when he opened the door and found her room empty.
On her bed, like a mesh of white clouds, lay the soft linen and lace
and the delicate clothes of the night; and by the bed were her tiny
blue slippers to match the blue dressing-gown. Some gracious things for
morning wear hung over a chair; an open book with a little cluster of
violets and a tiny mirror lay upon a table beside a sofa; a footstool
was placed at a considered angle for her well-known seat on the sofa
where the soft-blue lamp-shade threw the light upon her book; and a
little desk with dresden-china inkstand and penholder had little
pockets of ribbon-tied letter