"
She did not enter the room, but standing by the door she said softly yet
clearly, "Don't let her go. Call her spirit. Maybe it is near. Tell her
that you are calling her back to happiness and love. I believe she will
come to you, because you are her heart and her soul. I am going, and I
will bring a doctor. But you are the only one who can save her now."
The girl's voice had no personality for Vanno. He did not turn his mind
for an instant to Peter. It was as if his own thoughts spoke aloud and
gave him counsel what to do.
He rose from his knees, and sitting on the side of the bed gathered Mary
up into his arms. He held her closely against his breast, her hair
twined in his clasping fingers. Then he bent his head over the upturned
face, and whispered.
"Darling," he said, "heart of my heart, wherever you are have mercy and
come back to me. I can't live without you. You are my all. God will
give you to me if you will come. You look so happy, but you will be
happier with me, for you can't go and leave everything unfinished. Best
and dearest one, I need you. Come back! Come back!"
Mary's spirit had crossed the threshold and stood looking out into the
unknown, which stretched on and on into endlessness, like a sea of light
ringing round the world; and in this sea there was music which seemed to
be part of the light. She thought that she had been almost engulfed in a
terrible storm with waves mountain-high arising over her head in a great
darkness, and explosive noises of machinery loud in her ears as when
Carleton took her through the water of the harbour in his
hydro-aeroplane.
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