第58章 THE EIGHTH(7)

"Dear England!" said Miss Grammont, surveying this gracious spectacle."How full it is of homely and lovely and kindly things!""It is the home we come from."

"You belong to it still."

"No more than you do.I belong to a big overworking modern place called London which stretches its tentacles all over the world.I am as much a home-coming tourist as you are.

Most of this western country I am seeing for the first time."She said nothing for a space."I've not a word to say to-night," she said."I'm just full of a sort of animal satisfaction in being close to you....And in being with you among lovely things....Somewhere--Before we part to-night--...."

"Yes?" he said to her pause, and his face came very near to hers.

I want you to kiss me."

"Yes," he said awkwardly, glancing over his shoulder, acutely aware of the promenaders passing close to them.

"It's a promise?"

"Yes."

Very timidly and guiltily his hand sought hers beside it and gripped it and pressed it."My dear!" he whispered, tritest and most unavoidable of expressions.It was not very like Man and Woman loving upon their Planet; it was much more like the shy endearments of the shop boys and work girls who made the darkling populous about them with their silent interchanges.

"There are a thousand things I want to talk about to you,"she said."After we have parted to-morrow I shall begin to think of them.But now--every rational thing seems dissolved in this moonlight...."Presently she made an effort to restore the intellectual dignity of their relationship.

"I suppose I ought to be more concerned tonight about the work I have to do in the world and anxious for you to tell me this and that, but indeed I am not concerned at all about it.

I seem to have it in outline all perfectly clear.I mean to play a man's part in the world just as my father wants me to do.I mean to win his confidence and work with him--like a partner.Then some day I shall be a power in the world of fuel.And at the same time I must watch and read and think and learn how to be the servant of the world....We two have to live like trusted servants who have been made guardians of a helpless minor.We have to put things in order and keep them in order against the time when Man--Man whom we call in America the Common Man--can take hold of his world--""And release his servants," said Sir Richmond.

"All that is perfectly clear in my mind.That is what I am going to live for; that is what I have to do."She stopped abruptly."All that is about as interesting to-night--in comparison with the touch of your dear fingers--as next month's railway time-table."But later she found a topic that could hold their attention for a time.

"We have never said a word about religion," she said.

Sir Richmond paused for a moment."I am a godless man," he said."The stars and space and time overwhelm my imagination.

I cannot imagine anything above or beyond them."She thought that over."But there are divine things," she said.

"YOU are divine....I'm not talking lovers' nonsense," he hastened to add."I mean that there is something about human beings--not just the everyday stuff of them, but something that appears intermittently--as though a light shone through something translucent.If I believe in any divinity at all it is a divinity revealed to me by other people-- And even by myself in my own heart.

"I'm never surprised at the badness of human beings," said Sir Richmond; "seeing how they have come about and what they are; but I have been surprised time after time by fine things....Often in people I disliked or thought little of....I can understand that I find you full of divine quality, because I am in love with you and all alive to you.

Necessarily I keep on discovering loveliness in you.But Ihave seen divine things in dear old Martineau, for example.Avain man, fussy, timid--and yet filled with a passion for truth, ready to make great sacrifices and to toil tremendously for that.And in those men I am always cursing, my Committee, it is astonishing at times to discover what streaks of goodness even the really bad men can show....

But one can't make use of just anyone's divinity.I can see the divinity in Martineau but it leaves me cold.He tired me and bored me....But I live on you.It's only through love that the God can reach over from one human being to another.

All real love is a divine thing, a reassurance, a release of courage.It is wonderful enough that we should take food and drink and turn them into imagination, invention and creative energy; it is still more wonderful that we should take an animal urging and turn it into a light to discover beauty and an impulse towards the utmost achievements of which we are capable.All love is a sacrament and all lovers are priests to each other.You and I--"Sir Richmond broke off abruptly."I spent three days trying to tell this to Dr.Martineau.But he wasn't the priest I had to confess to and the words wouldn't come.I can confess it to you readily enough....""I cannot tell," said Miss Grammont, "whether this is the last wisdom in life or moonshine.I cannot tell whether I am thinking or feeling; but the noise of the water going over the weir below is like the stir in my heart.And I am swimming in love and happiness.Am I awake or am I dreaming you, and are we dreaming one another? Hold my hand--hold it hard and tight.I'm trembling with love for you and all the world....If I say more I shall be weeping."For a long time they stood side by side saying not a word to one another.