There was no blazing up of passion's fire; rather was there an ever-increasing glow of the holiest affection, till at last it became a lamp by which I must guide my feet through life and death.

This love of mine seemed not of earth but from the stars.

As yet I had said nothing to her of it because in some way I felt that she did not wish me to do so, felt also that she was well aware of all that passed within my heart, and desired, as it were, to give it time to ripen there.

Then one day there came a change, and though no glance or touch of Yva's told me so, I knew that the bars were taken down and that I might speak.
It was a night of full moon.

All that afternoon she had been talking to Bastin apart, I suppose about religion, for I saw that he had some books in his hand from which he was expounding something to her in his slow, earnest way.