Breeze, who was among them, was full of explanation how he had missed
the first boat and barely caught the second, supposing that his fiancee
was in the first. An awkward accident, but easily explained by
Pinckney, with the sprain in his ankle; and, indeed, the others were
too full of excuses for having forgotten them to inquire into the
causes of their absence together.

Pinckney went to his room, and had a night of delirium. Toward morning,
his troubled wakefulness ended, and he fell into a dream. He dreamed
that in the centre of the world was one green bower, beneath a
blossoming tree, and he and Miss Warfield were there. And the outer
world was being destroyed, one sphere by fire and the other by flood,
and there was only this bower left. But they could not stay there, or
the tree would die. So they went away, he to the one side and she to
the other, and the ruins of the world fell upon them, and they saw each
other no more.

In the morning his delirium left him, and his will resumed its sway. He
went down, and out into the green roads, and listened to the singing of
the birds; and then out to the cliff-path, and there he found Miss
Warfield sitting as if she knew that he would come. He watched her pure
face while she spoke, and her gray eyes: the clear light of the morning
was in them, and on the gleaming sea beyond.

"You must go," said she.

"Yes," he said, and that was all. He took her hand for one moment, and
lifted it lightly to his lips; then he turned and took the path across
the fields. When he got to the first stile, he looked around. She was
still sitting there, turned toward him. He lifted his hat, and held it
for a second or two; then he turned the corner of the hedge and went
down to the town.

Thus it happened that this story, which began sadly, with an epitaph,
may end with wedding bells:

MARRIED. _At King's Chapel, by the Rev. Dr. A----, the 21st of
September, Charles Austin Pinckney to Emily, daughter of the late James
Austin._

END OF VOLUME TWO

End of Project Gutenberg's Short Story Classics (American) Vol. 2, by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT STORY CLASSICS ***

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