She took my arm and turned me down the lane. "Night's my time," she said by my side. "There's a touch of the werewolf in my blood. One never knows in these old families. . . . I've wondered often. . . . Here we are, anyhow, alone in the world. Just darkness and cold and a sky of clouds and wet. And we—together. I like the wet on my face and hair, don't you? When do you sail?"
I told her to-morrow.
"Oh, well, there's no to-morrow now. You and I!" She stopped and confronted me.
"You don't say a word except to answer!"
"No," I said.
"Last time you did all the talking."
"Like a fool. Now"
We looked at each other's two dim faces. "You're glad to be here?"
"I'm glad—I'm beginning to be—it's more than glad."
She put her hands on my shoulders and drew me down to kiss her.
"Ah!" she said, and for a moment or so we just clung to one another.
"That's all," she said, releasing herself. "What bundles of clothes we are to-night. I felt we should kiss some day again. Always. The last time was ages ago."
"Among the fern stalks."
"Among the bracken. You remember. And your lips were cold. Were mine? The same lips—after so long—after so much! . . . And now let's trudge through this blotted-out world together for a time. Yes, let me take your arm. Just trudge, see? Hold tight to me because I know the way—and don't talk—
