A note so clear, so sweet, so rounded that it seemed to be the spirit
of the earth slipping into sound, stole into the room.
"Oh!" Anne whispered and held fast to Roger's hand.
The Indian girl straightened and stood listening. A brightness
flashed over the brown silence of her face and vanished as she moved
noiselessly to the door and passed through. Outside, in the sun-filled
meadow, the Basque shepherd stood among his sheep, his arms raised, a
little wooden flute to his lips. Once more he sounded the clear, sweet
call and then, at the sight of the girl, the happiness of the whole
earth came rippling and dancing from his flute.
For a moment, the girl remained motionless on the doorstep. Then,
without a sign of recognition, glided away toward the dense high reeds
of the lake edge. Still playing, the Basque shepherd moved after
her through the munching sheep. At the edge of the reeds, the music
stopped. He parted them and they closed, thick and blank, behind him.
That evening, Roger and Anne took their last walk. They walked far
along the lake, until a chill little wind crept out from the cañons, a
jealous little wind, guarding the tremendous silence of the night from
these paltry, human intruders.
Roger and Anne turned back. The sheep were huddled a dark mass in the
corner of the meadow. Over the embers of a campfire, the Basque herder
and two half-breed milkers were playing cards. Against the door of her
whitewashed shack the Indian girl leaned, her black hair in two great
braids to her waist, facing toward the glow of the dying fire. As Anne
and Roger crossed the front yard, she slipped inside and closed the
door.
The rotation of the days had fulfilled its promise. The perfect had
come to its own end. Anne lay in Roger's arms.
"I always felt there was something perfect somewhere," she whispered.
Roger drew her closer to him.
"I love you, I love you, I love you," he answered hotly. Anne's
arms closed about him. Through the force sweeping him, almost to
unconsciousness of Anne as a separate body, he felt her lips, warm,
soft, as eager as his own.