_Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand_.
She nodded. "I know. I know. Say it all through, Marko."
He stumbled through it. At the end, a little abashed, he smiled at her and said, "Of course, no one else would think it applies. Richard was saying it in Wales where he'd just landed, and it's about civil war, not foreign; but where it comes to me is the loving of the soil itself, as if it were a living thing that knew it was being loved and loved back in return. Our England, Nona. You remember Gaunt's thing in the same play:
"This royal throne of kings, this sceptre'd isle, This other Eden, demi-paradise.... This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea.... This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England...."
She nodded again. He saw that her dear eyes were brimming. She said, "Yes--yes.--Our England. Rupert Brooke said it just perfectly, Marko:
"And think, this heart, all evil shed, away.... Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven."
She touched his hand. "Dear Marko--" She made approach to that which lay between them. "'This heart, all evil shed away.' Marko, in this frightful time we couldn't have given back the thoughts by England given if we had.--And that was you, Marko."
He shook his head, not trusting himself to look at her. He said, "You. Not I. Any one can know the right thing. But strength to do it--Strength flows out of you to me. It always has. I want it more and more. I shall want it. Things are difficult. Sometimes I've a frightful feeling that things are closing in on me. There's Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind.' It makes me--I don't know--wrought up. And sometimes I've the feeling that I'm being carried along like that and towards that frightful cry at the end, 'O Wind, if winter comes-'"
He stopped. He said, "Give me your handkerchief to keep, Nona. Something of your own to keep. There will be strength in it for me--to help me hold on to the rest--to believe it--'If Winter comes--Can Spring be far behind?'"
She touched her handkerchief to her lips and gave it to him.