“Do you know who this is, Ruth?” I asked.
“Of course I do,” she answered. “It is Artemidorus.”
We stood, hand in hand, facing the mummy, letting our memories fill in the vague silhouette with its well-remembered details. Presently I drew her nearer to me and whispered:
“Ruth! do you remember when we last stood here?”
“As if I could ever forget!” she answered passionately. “Oh, Paul! The sorrow of it! The misery! How it wrung my heart to tell you! Were you very unhappy when I left you?”
“Unhappy! I never knew, until then, what real heartbreaking sorrow was. It seemed as if the light had gone out of my life forever. But there was just one little spot of brightness left.”
“What was that?”
“You made me a promise, dear—a solemn promise; and I felt—at least I hoped—that the day would come, if I only waited patiently, when you would be able to redeem it.”
She crept closer to me and yet closer, until her head nestled on my shoulder and her soft cheek lay against mine.
“Dear heart,” I whispered, “is it now? Is the time fulfilled?”
“Yes, dearest,” she murmured softly. “It is now—and forever.”
Reverently I folded her in my arms; gathered her to the heart that worshiped her utterly. Henceforth no sorrows could hurt us, no misfortune vex; for we should walk hand in hand on our earthly pilgrimage and find the way all too short.
Time, whose sands run out with such unequal swiftness for the just and the unjust, the happy and the wretched, lagged, no doubt, with the toilers in the room that we had left. But for us its golden grains trickled out apace, and left the glass empty before we had begun to mark their passage. The turning of a key and the opening of a door aroused us from our dream of perfect happiness. Ruth raised her head to listen, and our lips met for one brief moment. Then, with a silent greeting to the friend who had looked on our grief and witnessed our final happiness, we turned and retraced our steps quickly, filling the great empty rooms with chattering echoes.
“We won’t go back into the darkroom—which isn’t dark now,” said Ruth.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because—when I came out I was very pale; and I’m—well, I don’t think I am very pale now. Besides, poor Uncle John is in there—and—I should be ashamed to look at him with my selfish heart overflowing with happiness.”
“You needn’t be,” said I. “It is the day of our lives and we have a right to be happy. But you shan’t go in, if you don’t wish to,” and I accordingly steered her adroitly past the beam of light that streamed from the open door.
“We have developed four negatives,” said Thorndyke, as he emerged with the others, “and I am leaving them in the custody of Doctor Norbury, who will sign each when they are dry, as they may have to be put in evidence. What are you going to do?”
I looked at Ruth to see what she wished.
“If you won’t think me ungrateful,” said she, “I should rather be alone with my father tonight. He is very weak, and—”
“Yes, I understand,” I said hastily. And I did. Mr. Bellingham was a man of strong emotions and would probably be somewhat overcome by the sudden change of fortune and the news of his brother’s tragic death.
“In that case,” said Thorndyke, “I will bespeak your services. Will you go on and wait for me at my chambers, when you have seen Miss Bellingham home?”
I agreed to this, and we set forth under the guidance of Dr. Norbury (who carried an electric lamp) to return by the way we had come; two of us, as least, in a vastly different frame of mind. The party broke up at the entrance gates, and as Thorndyke wished my companion “Good night,” she held his hand and looked up in his face with swimming eyes.
“I haven’t thanked you, Doctor Thorndyke,” she said, “and I don’t feel that I ever can. What you have done for me and my father is beyond all thanks. You have saved his life and you have rescued me from the most horrible ignominy. Goodbye! and God bless you!”
The hansom that bowled along eastward—at most unnecessary speed—bore two of the happiest human beings within the wide boundaries of the town. I looked at my companion as the lights of the street shone into the cab, and was astonished at the transformation. The pallor of her cheek had given place to a rosy pink; the hardness, the tension, the haggard self-repression that had aged her face, were all gone, and the girlish sweetness that had so bewitched me in the early days of our love had stolen back. Even the dimple was there when the sweeping lashes lifted and her eyes met mine in a smile of infinite tenderness.
Little was said on that brief journey. It was happiness enough to sit, hand clasped in hand, and know that our time of trial was past; that no cross of Fate could ever part us now.
The astonished cabman set us down, according to instructions, at the entrance to Nevill’s Court, and watched us with open mouth as we vanished into the narrow passage. The court had settled down for the night, and no one marked our return; no curious eye looked down on us from the dark house-front as we said “Goodbye,” just inside the gate.
“You will come and see us tomorrow, dear, won’t you?” she asked.
“Do you think it possible that I could stay away, then?”
“I hope not, but come as early as you can. My father will be positively frantic to see you; because I shall have told him, you know. And, remember, that it is you who have brought us this great deliverance. Good night, Paul.”
“Good night, sweetheart.”
She put up her face frankly to be
