"You are happy, dearest?" the lover sighed.
"The old life of blood and strife--it seems an ugly dream."
"Except for the sweet days when you were near."
"This only is life, my own, to hold your hand, and walk the way together, to build, not to destroy, to make flowers bloom, birds and slaves sing, to create, not kill--production is communion with God. We live now in His peace that passeth understanding!"
A long silence followed. An owl in a distant tree top gave a shrill plaintive cry. The bride nestled closer and he felt her shiver.
"We're forgetting the late August night winds--"
"No--no--it's nothing--I'm just a wee bit afraid of an owl, that's all."
A dark figure slowly approached and stood with uncovered head.
"It's too late, sir, for you and the mistis to be out in dis air--it's chill an' fever time--"
When the faithful footfall had died away, the lover lifted his bride in his arms and carried her in, while she softly laughed and clung to his strong young shoulders.
It came with swift, sure tread, the silent white figure of the Pestilence that walks in Tropic Splendor.
The lover laughed the doctor's fears to scorn and the old man was brave and cheerful in the presence of youth and happiness.
James Pemberton followed him to the gate and held his horse's bridle with a tremor in his black hand.
"You don't think, doctor--" he paused, afraid to say the thing--"you don't think my young mistis gwine ter die?"
"She's very ill, Jim--it's an even fight for life."
"Ef she do--hit'll kill my young marster--"
"Yassah--but dey ain't been married but three months, sah, an' he des worship de very groun' her little foot walks on--she des can't die--she too young an' putty, sah--hit des natchally can't be--"
The doctor's gray head slowly moved as if in remembrance of tragic scenes.
He turned to the slave in tones of warning:
Two days later, the strong man collapsed with a crash that took even the experienced old doctor by surprise. An iron will had bent over the bedside of his bride and fought with grim defiance the battle with unseen foe until the last ounce of strength had gone.
In his delirium they moved him to another room and he awoke to find himself in a prison cell on a desert island a thousand miles from the mate he adored.