"
"Oh, no," she whispered, she had not forgotten, only the stars--the
night--the dark--
"You're like a bird half asleep in its nest, Rachel. You're asleep.
You're talking in your sleep."
Half asleep, and murmuring broken words, they stood in the angle made by
the bow of the boat. It slipped on down the river. Now a bell struck on
the bridge, and they heard the lapping of water as it rippled away on
either side, and once a bird startled in its sleep creaked, flew on to
the next tree, and was silent again. The darkness poured down profusely,
and left them with scarcely any feeling of life, except that they were
standing there together in the darkness.
Chapter XXII
The darkness fell, but rose again, and as each day spread widely over
the earth and parted them from the strange day in the forest when they
had been forced to tell each other what they wanted, this wish of theirs
was revealed to other people, and in the process became slightly strange
to themselves. Apparently it was not anything unusual that had happened;
it was that they had become engaged to marry each other. The world,
which consisted for the most part of the hotel and the villa, expressed
itself glad on the whole that two people should marry, and allowed them
to see that they were not expected to take part in the work which has to
be done in order that the world shall go on, but might absent themselves
for a time.
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