Love Eternal

  Godfrey began to dream. He dreamed that he was travelling; that he wasin a house, and then, a long while afterwards, that he was making ajourney by sea.

  Another vacuum of nothingness and he dreamed again, this time veryvividly. Now his dream was that he had come to Egypt and was stretchedon a bed in a room, through the windows of which he could see thePyramids quite close at hand. More, he seemed to become acquainted withall their history. He saw them in the building; multitudes of brown mendragging huge blocks of stone up a slope of sand. He saw them finishedone by one, and all the ceremonies of the worship with which they wereconnected. Dead Pharaohs were laid to rest there beneath his eyes,living Pharaohs prayed within their chapels and made oblation to thespirits of those who had gone before them, while ever the white-robed,shaven priests chanted in his ears.

  Then all passed, and he saw them mighty as ever, but deserted, standingthere in the desert, the monuments of a forgotten greatness, till atlength a new people came and stripped off their marble coverings.

  These things he remembered afterwards, but there were many more that heforgot.

  Again Godfrey dreamed, a strange and beautiful dream which went on fromday to day. It was that he was very ill and that Isobel had come tonurse him. She came quite suddenly and at first seemed a littlefrightened and disturbed, but afterwards very happy indeed. This wenton for a while, till suddenly there struck him a sense of somethingterrible that had happened, of an upheaval of conditions, of awrenching asunder of ties, of change utter and profound.

  Then while he mourned because she was not there, Isobel came again, butdifferent. The difference was indefinable, but it was undoubted. Herappearance seemed to have changed somewhat, and in the intervalsbetween her comings he could never remember how she had been clothed,except for two things which she always seemed to wear, the little ringwith the turquoise hearts, though oddly enough, not her wedding ring,and the string of small pearls which he had given her when they weremarried, and knew again by the clasp, that was fashioned in a lover'sknot of gold. Her voice, too, seemed changed, or rather he did not hearher voice, since it appeared to speak within him, in his consciousness,not without to his ears. She told him all sorts of strange things,about a wonderful land in which they would live together, and the homethat she was making ready for him, and the trees and flowers growingaround it, that were unlike any of which Godfrey had ever heard. Alsoshe said that there were many other matters whereof she would wish tospeak to him, only she might not.

  Finally there came a vivid dream in which she told him that soon hewould wake up to the world again for a little while (she seemed to layemphasis on this "little while") and, if he could not find her in it,that he must not grieve at all, since although their case seemed sad,it was much better than he could conceive. In his dream she made himpromise that he would not grieve, and he did so, wondering. At this shesmiled, looking more beautiful than ever he could have conceived her tobe. Then she spoke these words, always, as it appeared, within him,printing them, as it were, upon his mind:

  "Now you are about to wake up and I must leave you for a while. Butthis I promise you, my most dear, my beloved, my own, that before youfall asleep again for the last time, you shall see me once more, forthat is allowed to me. Indeed it shall be I who will soothe you tosleep and I who will receive you when you awake again. Also in thespace between, although you do not see me, you will always feel menear, and I shall be with you. So swear to me once more that you willnot grieve."

  Then in his vision Godfrey swore, and she appeared to lean over him andwhisper words into his ear that, although they impressed themselvesupon his brain as the others had done, had no meaning for him, sincethey were in some language which he did not understand.

  Only he knew that they conveyed a blessing to him, and not that ofIsobel alone!