When that ceremony was over and all people had gone to their homes, I
came back again to the empty church from the Hall, where I abode a while
as the guest of my sister and her husband, till Lily and I were wed.
And there in the quiet light of the June evening I knelt in the chancel
upon the rushes that strewed the grave of my father and my mother, and
sent my spirit up towards them in the place of their eternal rest, and
to the God who guards them. A great calm came upon me as I knelt thus,
and I felt how mad had been that oath of mine that as a lad I had sworn
to be avenged upon de Garcia, and I saw how as a tree from a seed, all
my sorrows had grown from it. But even then I could not do other than
hate de Garcia, no, nor can I to this hour, and after all it was natural
that I should desire vengeance on the murderer of my mother though the
wreaking of it had best been left in another Hand.
Without the little chancel door I met Lily, who was lingering there
knowing me to be within, and we spoke together.
'Lily,' I said, 'I would ask you something. After all that has been,
will you still take me for your husband, unworthy as I am?'
'I promised so to do many a year ago, Thomas,' she answered, speaking
very low, and blushing like the wild rose that bloomed upon a grave
beside her, 'and I have never changed my mind.
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