The face suddenly became luminous, as with a radiance within itself; the shadows of grief melted away, and in their place trembled the rising light of a dawning love.

The lips moved and the voice spoke, not as it had spoken to her lately, but in tones long familiar to her in dreams by day and night.
"I am he, I am that love for whom you have waited; you are that dear one whom I have long sought throughout the world.

The hour of our joy has struck, the new life begins to-day, and there shall be no end." Unorna's arms went out to grasp the shadow, and she drew it to her in her fancy and kissed its radiant face.
"To ages of ages!" she cried.
Then she covered her eyes as though to impress the sight they had seen upon the mind within, and groping blindly for her chair sank back into her seat.

But the mechanical effort of will and memory could not preserve the image.

In spite of all inward concentration of thought, its colours faded, its outlines trembled, grew faint and vanished, and darkness was in its place.