"Oh help me to do that, sweetheart! Help me to keep right! Don't let me
lose out with those other things of life!"
Her arms about his neck! He would never forget how she clung to him.
There was a long silence when their souls reached one another as they
had never done before. The quivering of her body, her breath upon his
cheek--they told him all. But after that, the words did come to her;
broken words struggling to tell of what her love would do to make it
right; how she would be with him, so close, so unfailing, that the
darkness would never find him alone.
His arms about her tightened. Thank God--oh yes, a million times thank
God for Ernestine!
Then he felt her start; there came a sound as though she would say
something, but choked it back.
"Yes, dear?" he said gently.
"Oh, Karl, I shouldn't ask it. It will hurt you. I shouldn't ask."
"I would rather you did, dear. Ask anything. We are holding nothing from
one another now."
"I just happened to think--I wanted to know--oh Karl, it wasn't in your
eye on my birthday, was it? It hadn't happened--wasn't happening--when we
sat there by the fire, happier than we had ever been before?"
His impulse was to hold that back.
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