"
She covered her face with her hand.
"He--he must have forgotten," she said at last.
"Yes, he must have forgotten," he agreed quietly.
There was a long silence. She remained motionless, but he heard her
breath being drawn in quick, painful gasps. The battle for them both
was at its height. He bent forward and took the hand that lay clenched
in her lap gently in his own.
[Illustration: He took her hand that lay clutched in her lap.]
"Dear little Lois, dear little comrade! We are like two architects,
you and I. We were very young when we set out on our great task, and
no doubt we have made many blunders. In the beginning we each hoped
secretly that the time would come when we should be able to crown our
work hand in hand. It was that I was thinking of when I sent my
message. Well, things have turned out differently--perhaps through our
own fault. But the cathedral must go on. Instead of one spire, as we
had hoped, there will be two spires. You will build yours, I mine.
They will be far apart, and so we of necessity must be apart, too. But
the cathedral will go on; and in the end--who knows?--it may be more
perfect than as we saw it in our first great plan."
"But we might have built together, Adam!"
"Yes. We might even build together now--but then it would no longer be
a cathedral. It would be a mud hovel like the rest. And that would be
wrong--wrong to the world and wrong to ourselves.
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