Part 50 (1/2)

”Oh, it's all so plain! If there was a way to that Heart, one would be safe. I mean, a way that is not an emotional idea, not a subjective experience, but something practical. Some way that a Tommy could travel, as easily as anyone, and get to a real thing. And he said there was a way, and just sketched it, the Sacraments--more than ours, of course, their seven, all of them more or less, I suppose. He meant that the Sacraments were not signs of salvation, but salvation itself. Julie, I never saw the idea before. It's colossal. It's a thing to which one might dedicate one's life. It's a thing to live and die gladly for. It fills one. Don't you think so, Julie?” He spoke exultantly.

”Peter, to be honest,” said Julie, ”I think you're talking fanatical rubbish.”

”Do you really, Julie? You can't, _surely_ you can't.”

”But I do, Peter,” she said sadly; ”it makes no appeal to me. I can only see one great thing in life, and it's not that. 'The rest is lies,' But, oh! surely that great thing might not be false too. But why do you see one thing, and I another, my dear?”

”I don't know,” said Peter, ”unless--well, perhaps it's a kind of gift, Julie, 'If thou knewest the gift of G.o.d...' Not that I know, only I can just see a great wonderful vision, and it fills my sight.”

”I, too,” she said; ”but it's not your vision.”

”What is it, then?” said he, carried away by his own ideas and hardly thinking of her.

Her voice brought him back. ”Oh, Peter, don't you know even yet?”

He took her arm very tenderly at that. ”My darling,” he said, ”the two aren't incompatible. Julie, don't be sad. I love you; you know I love you. I wish we'd never gone to the place if you think I don't, but I haven't changed towards you a bit, Julie. I love you far, far more than anyone else. I won't give you up, even to G.o.d!”

It was dark where they were. Julie lifted her face to him just there. He thought he had never heard her speak as she spoke now, there, in a London street, under the night sky. ”Peter, my darling,” she said, ”my brave boy. How I love you, Peter! I know _you_ won't give me up, Peter, and I adore you for it. Peter, h.e.l.l will be heaven with the memory of that!”

There, then, he sealed her with his kiss.

Julie stirred in his arms, but the movement did not wake him any more than the knock of the door had done. ”All right,” she called. ”Thank you,” and, leaning over, she switched on the light. It was 5.30, and necessary. In its radiance she bent over him, and none of her friends had ever seen her look as she did then. She kissed him, and he opened his eyes.

”Half-past five, Peter,” she said, as gaily as she could. ”You've got to get a move on, my dear. Two hours to dress and pack and breakfast--no, I suppose you can do that on the train. But you've got to get there. Oh, Lord, how it brings the war home, doesn't it? Jump up!”

Peter sighed. ”Blast the war!” he said lazily. ”I shan't move. Kiss me again, you darling, and let your hair fall over my face.”

She did so, and its glossy curtain hid them. Beneath the veil she whispered; ”Come, darling, for my sake. The longer you stay here now, the harder it will be.”

He threw his arms round her, and then jumped out of bed yawning.

”That's it,” she said. ”Now go and shave and bath while I pack for you.

Hurry up; then we'll get more time.”

While he splashed about she sought for his things, and packed for him as she never packed for herself. As she gathered them she thought of the night before, when, overwhelmed in a tempest of love, it had all been left for the morning. She filled the suit-case, but she could not fasten it.

”Come and help, Peter,” she called.

He came out. She was kneeling on it in her loose kimono, her hair all about her, her nightdress open at the throat. He drank her beauty in, and then mastered himself for a minute and shut the case. ”That all?” she queried.

”Yes,” he said. ”You get back into bed, my darling, or you'll catch cold.

I'll be ready in a second, and then we can have a few minutes together.”

At the gla.s.s he marshalled his arguments, and then he came over to her.

He dropped by the bedside and wound his arms about her. ”Julie,” he whispered, ”my darling, say you'll marry me--please, _please_!”