So long lasted the silence--the ecstatic silence which, indeed, is golden--that time lost its significance and they were caught up into the heaven of eternity.
At last, with a sigh, Celia came back to earth: that earth which his love had turned to a veritable Paradise.
"I must go," she whispered.
"Must you, dearest--Celia ?" he asked, with all a lover's reluctance.
"Yes," she said, the word broken with a sigh.

"I am sorry; but I must go.

I don't know how late it is." He took the watch from her belt--the very act was a caress--and looked at it.
"We have been here an hour.

It seems only a minute.

And we must part! That's hard." "Yes, it's hard," she whispered, with a long breath.