Page:Pan's Garden.djvu/239

 A long time passed⁠—it may have been one hour, it may have been three⁠—when at length he turned away and went slowly to his bedroom. A deep peace lay over him. Something quite new and blessed had crept into his life and thought. He could not quite understand it all. He only knew that it uplifted. There was no longer the least sign of affliction or distress. Even the inevitable reaction that set in could not destroy that.

And then as he lay in bed nearing the borderland of sleep, suddenly and without any obvious suggestion to bring it, he remembered another thing. He remembered the promise. Memory got past the big curtain for an instant and showed her face. She looked into his eyes. It must have been a dozen years ago when Straughan and he had made that foolish solemn promise, that whoever died first should show himself if possible to the other.

He had utterly forgotten it⁠—till now. But Straughan had not forgotten it. The letter came three weeks later from India. That very evening Straughan had died⁠—at nine o'clock. And he had come back⁠—in the Beauty that he loved.