Part 42 (2/2)
With burning cheeks and tearful eyes Lyle recalled his words, and pondered deeply on the strange bond that seemed, in some way, to exist between his life and hers, but the longer she tried to solve the problem, the deeper and more obscure it seemed.
In the midst of her reflections, she heard a light step upon the rocky footpath, and looking up, saw Morton Rutherford approaching. So absorbed was he in the study of the ma.s.ses of rock about him, on which had been traced by the finger of the centuries, in wonderful hieroglyphics, the early history of the earth, that for a time he was unconscious of her presence there. When he saw her he raised his hat and came quickly forward.
”I beg your pardon,” he said, in deep, musical tones, ”I supposed myself alone with my own thoughts; am I intruding? if so, send me away at once.”
”No, stay, if you please,” said Lyle.
”Thank you,” he answered, seating himself on the rocks at a little distance, ”you appeared so lost in thought I feared my coming might annoy you.”
”No,” she replied, ”my thoughts were too perplexing, I was growing weary of them.”
Mr. Rutherford glanced at the surrounding mountains; ”Were you, too, trying to fathom the mystery of the eternal hills?” he asked.
”No,” was her reply, ”I have never attempted anything so far beyond me as that; I have found more mysteries in every-day, human life than I could solve.”
Morton Rutherford was silent for a few moments, then he said in low tones:
”I hope you will pardon me when I say, that to me, your own life here, under the existing circ.u.mstances and conditions, is a mystery, one which seems capable of but one solution.”
”And what would be your solution?” she asked quickly.
He saw that she understood his meaning, and was watching him intently, eagerly, and he said:
”Permit me to reply to your question by asking one in return. Do you not believe that your life had a beginning elsewhere than here, and under far different conditions?”
”It is more than a belief with me, it is a certainty, and yet, strange as it may appear to you, this knowledge has come to me but recently, and even now, I know nothing of what those conditions may have been, except that they were totally unlike these that exist here.”
”You interest me very much are you willing to tell me how you arrived at this knowledge of which you speak?”
Very briefly, and without going into details, Lyle, in response to the magnetic sympathy of those dark eyes, gave a vivid outline of her life, and of the vague impressions which of late were becoming distinct recollections, and of her hope of soon finding tangible evidence regarding the life which was daily growing more and more of a reality.
Mr. Rutherford listened with intense interest to the strange story, and when she had finished, he said slowly, as he took a short turn up and down the rocky path:
”Believe me, I have not listened to this through mere, idle curiosity; much as your story has interested me, it has not surprised me, for I read the truth almost from our first meeting.”
Lyle gave him a smile of rare sweetness and deep significance; ”I am glad to know that,” she said simply.
”Why so?” he asked, pausing and seating himself beside her; ”Did you think I could fail to recognize the soul that looked out to welcome me when I first came, no matter amid what surroundings I found it?” Then, as she remained silent, he continued, his tones thrilling her heart as no human voice had ever done before:
”Since the hour that I first met you, Lyle, life has changed for me,--I think perhaps it will never be quite the same again for either of us. I know that I love you with a love that, whether reciprocated or not, can never die; that henceforth, you will be,--you must be,--a part of my very life. Let me care for you and help you; let me help you in your search for the home for which you were created, and of which you are worthy; but, Lyle, before you search any farther for that home, will you not consent to become the queen of my home, as you are already the queen of my heart?”
Lyle lifted her head proudly, though the tears glistened on the long, golden lashes; ”Do you ask me that, here and now, knowing nothing as yet, of what the future may reveal?”
”I do; I have no fear for the future if I but have your love. Do you think that, perhaps, in the days to come, amid other and different surroundings, you might find some one whose love your heart would choose in preference to mine?”
”Never!” cried Lyle, impulsively, turning with outstretched arms to him, ”You are the only one I have ever loved,--the only one I could ever love!”
”Then that is enough for me,” he replied, drawing her closely to his breast; ”you have come forth from the years of the wretched past, with a soul star-white and s.h.i.+ning, and I have no fears for the future.”
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