be
evil.' Christopher, death isn't evil, if it isn't the end of things. And
I am going to believe that it is not the end ..."

Christopher went into town before lunch, and later Anne sat alone on
the stone bench in her grove of birches. They were serene and still in
the gold of the afternoon. Yet last night they had writhed in the storm.
She, too, had been swept by a storm.... She missed her playmate--but she
had a sense of relief in the absence of her tempestuous lover.

Ridgeley came home that night with news of Christopher's sudden
departure. "He found telegrams. He told me to say 'good-bye' to you."

"I am sorry," Anne said, and meant it. Sorry that it had to be--but
being sorry could not change it.

After dinner Ridgeley had a call to make, and Anne went up to bed. But
she was awake when her husband came in, and the thin line of light
showed. She waited until she heard the boom of water in his bath, and
then she slipped out of bed and opened the door between. She was propped
up in her pillows when he reappeared in his blue bathrobe.

"Hello," he called, "did you want me?"

"Yes, Ridgeley."

He came in. "Anything the matter?"

"No. I'm not sick. But I want to talk."

"About what?"

"This--" She showed him the paper with its caption, "For Anne."

"Ridgeley, did you write it because I was--afraid?" her hand went out to
him.

His own went over it. "I think I wrote it because I was afraid."

"You?"

His grip almost hurt her. "My dear, my dear, I haven't believed in
things. How could I ... with all the facts that men like me have to deal
with? But when I faced ... losing you...! love's _got_ to be eternal..."

"Ridgeley."

"I won't ... lose you. Oh, I know. We've grown apart. I don't know how a
man is going to help it ... in this darned whirlpool.... But you've
always been right ... here.... I've felt I might ... have you, if I ever
had time ..." his voice broke.

"And I thought you didn't care."

"I was afraid of that, and somehow I couldn't get ... back ... to where
we began. I was always thinking I would.... And then this came....

"I always hated to kill the things that you believed, Anne. I thought I
had to be honest ... that it would be better for you to face the
truth.... But which one of us knows the Truth? Not a man among us. And I
came across this ... '_Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not
quickened except it die_....' We are all fools--the wisest of us...."

She held out her arms