"Love is strong as death. Many waters can not quench love, neither
can floods drown it."--_The Proverbs of Solomon._
The war was over at last; peace was declared. The last review had been
held, and the last volunteer had gone home.
Two persons were standing on the old observatory floor, at the highest
point of the island, looking at the little village below, the sparkling
Straits, and the blue line of land in the distant north. At least Anne
was looking at them. But her lover was looking at her.
"It is enough to repay even the long silence of those long years," he
said.
And others might have agreed with him. For it was a woman exquisitely
and richly beautiful whom he held in his arms, whose tremulous lips he
kissed at his pleasure, until, forgetting the landscape, she turned to
him with a clinging movement, and hid her face upon his breast. Her
heart, her life, her being, were all his, and he knew it. She loved him
intensely.
"Something may be allowed to a starved man," he had said, the first time
they were alone together after his arrival, his eyes dwelling fondly on
her sweet face. "Do not be careful any more, Anne; show me that you love
me. I have suffered, suffered, suffered, since those old days at
Caryl's."
On this June afternoon they lingered on the height until the sun sank
low in the west.
"We must go, Ward."
"Wait until it is out of sight."
They waited in silence until the gold rim disappeared. Then they turned
to each other.
"Your last day alone; to-morrow you will be my wife. Do you remember
when I asked you whether the whole world would not be well lost to us if
we could but have love and each other? We had love, but the rest was
denied. Now we have that also.... Anne, I was, and am still, an idle,
selfish fellow. Whatever change there has been or will be is owing to
you. For you love me so much, my darling, that you exalt me, and I for
very shame try to live up to it."
He looked at her, and she saw the rare tears in his eyes.
Then he brushed them away, smiled, and offered his arm. "Shall we go
down now, Mrs. Heathcote?"
They were married the next morning in the little military chapel. Mrs.
Rankin was at the fort again, Lieutenant Rankin being major and in
command. The other poor wives who had been her companions there were
widows now; the battle-fields round Richmond were drawn with lines of
fire upon their hearts forever. Mrs. Rankin, though but just arrived,
left her household goods unpacked to decorate the chapel with wreaths of
the early green. Miss Teller and Miss Lois, both in such excitement
that they spoke incoherently, yet seemed to understand each other
nevertheless, superintended the preparations at the church-house.
As a wedding gift, Gregory Dexter sent the same package Anne had once
returned to him; the only addition was a star for the hair, set with
diamonds.
* * * * *
"I said that perhaps you would accept these some time" (he wrote). "Will
you accept them now? They were bought for you. It will give me pleasure
to think that you are wearing them. I have no right to offer you a ring;
but the diamond, in some shape, I must give you, as the one imperishable
stone. With unchanging regard,
"GREGORY DEXTER."
* * * * *
"You have no objection?" said Anne, with a slight hesitation in her
voice.
"No," answered Heathcote, carelessly; "it would hurt him too much if we
returned them. But what a heavily gorgeous taste he has! Diamonds,
sables, and an India shawl!"
He had never been jealous of Dexter. Why should he be jealous now?
The new chaplain read the marriage service, but Père Michaux gave the
bride away. Not only the whole village was present, but the whole water
parish also, if not within the chapel, then without. People had begun to
cross from the mainland and islands at dawn, so as to be in time; the
Straits were covered by a small fleet. Miss Teller was the only
stranger, save the bridegroom himself.
Anne was dressed simply in soft white; she wore no ornaments. Mr. and
Mrs. Heathcote would not be rich; on the contrary, they would begin
their married life with a straitened income, that is, in worldly wealth.
In youth, beauty, and a love so great that it could not be measured in
words, the bridegroom was richer than the proudest king. As for the
bride, one look in her eyes was enough.
"I, Anne, take thee, Ward, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold,
from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in
sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do
part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my
troth."
"Anne," said Miss Teller, drawing the new-made wife aside, "I want to
whisper something. I will not tell Ward--men are different. But I want
_you_ to know that Helen's grave is covered with heliotrope in Greenwood
this morning, and that I am sure she knows all, and is glad."
THE END.