Then nothing happened for a long time, and I could feel Eve laughing silently, and I knew that Bobby was ramping about the place, looking forsomebody that he found not. It was as bad as chasing submarines. And at last the bushes moved again, and I heard Bobby's voice whispering, "Elizabeth! Elizabeth! Where are you?" And the bushes near us shivered, and there came a gasp, and somebody started to run, but Bobby caught her. I could see nothing, but I could imagine his catching her by both hands, and I could hear. I could not help hearing.
"Oh!" she gasped; and "Oh!" again.
Then he seemed to catch her close.
"Elizabeth!" he whispered. "Elizabeth! I give up. It's unconditional surrender, Elizabeth. I've fought against it, but it's no use. I don't care what you are if you'll only love me."
Elizabeth was between laughter and tears.
"Even if I am a German spy, Bobby?"
"Even if you're a German spy," he whispered fiercely. "But you're not. You couldn't be. You're too honest—and true."
"Honest and true, Bobby," Elizabeth whispered, clinging to him—I guessed. "But you don't know what a woman can do. If I were a German spy, I should be doing just this—to worm your secrets out of you."
There was a silence.
"Do it again," he said, "—German spy!"
She did it again—I guessed.
"I'm only," she whispered, half-crying on his shoulder, "practisingwireless on the Arcadia. You knew that, Bobby, didn't you?"
Eve touched my arm, and we began to withdraw soundlessly.
"And, oh, Bobby," Elizabeth went on, "I'm afraid that you—that you may not come back. Those destroyers are—but I'm proud of you, so proud!"
"I'm coming back," said Bobby. "Trust me, if I have you to come back to. I always did have luck, and I've always come back. I do have you, don't I?"
"You seem to," Elizabeth whispered merrily. "And I—"
Then Eve and I were out of that balcony at last, and we went along the piazza as silently as might be, and down the steps. I began to sing softly, "The cloudless sky is nowserene," and Eve laughed and checked me.
"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Adam?"
"No, Eve," I said, "but I rejoice mightily."
"And so do I," she said, "and there is but one thing more needed to make me very happy. And that you shall tell me."
And we wended over the grass that was flecked with moonlight—it was wet too, that grass—and through the greenery that was no more green, but was of a dense blackness, and came out upon the bank above my clam beds, where the sod breaks off to the sand. And there Eve sat her down where the pebbles once shone in the sun, ADAM and EVE.
"I know it is wet," she said, "andI do not care. Now do you finish what you began to tell me—about yourself."
I sat beside her. "It seems trivial now. Indeed, it is no great matter, but I am easier in my mind now that I have done it. I have enrolled in the navy. And that is all, and soon told. And if you do not like it, Eve, I am sorry, but I had to do it."
She laughed, and she gave a glad little cry, and her arms were about my neck.
"That is what I wanted to hear, Adam."
"But I thought that you had pacifist leanings, Eve."
"Every woman has such leanings, especially where the matter concerns those she loves. But I know that you will be happier, and not ashamed,and that is much to me; and I can be proud. I am very happy, but I am afraid too—terribly afraid. I pray that you may not be led into any danger—and if that is wicked I cannot help it."
I kissed the dear lovely face upturned to mine.
"And what did they say?" she whispered. "What will they do with you? You are in the Reserve, aren't you?"
I laughed. "I enrolled in the navy for any duty that they saw fit to assign me to. And the officer smiled, and said that I would be called when I was wanted. I may be a coal-passer, Eve, or I may be a mechanic to clean Tom's car, or I may breathe the pure air of heaven as I sail the raging main."
Eve wrinkled her brow. "But I don't like that, Adam. Don't you know whether you will be afloat or ashore?"
"I was told that I would be of more value ashore. And that I was sorry to hear, for I had rather be afloat, except that we should be parted. And I want to see a German submarine before I die. 'They ain't no sich an animal.'"
And Eve laughed, and we got up and wandered home over the pebbles of the shore. Fog was driving across the face of the moon, so that it was now hidden, now partially revealed. From above the fog we heard the mutter of thunder. Eve squeezed my arm.
"Do you hear the guns, Adam?" she asked. "The gods are warring."
"Never give it a thought, Eve," I said. "What are their wars to us?"
"Well," said Eve, sighing, "but I hope it will be ashore."
And we climbed the steep path, and went in to our candles, to wait for Elizabeth. Elizabeth was like to be long in coming.
THE END
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS
U . S . A