CHAPTER XXII

THE END

"--And the ballade humbly prays, The tribute of your sighs, For the hawke's blinde little eyes, --And the cavalier who lies By the four cross ways."

The little falcon came back last night. It has been weeks away, but it came back last night, and I feel it even now pinching at my wrist. It seems to say, "Hurry, you have nearly finished." It seems anxious for me to go with it. Where? I do not know.

I can scarcely write. I am half-blind with what? God only knows. Not tears, for I have no tears left. A darkness has stolen over my brain. In writing this story I have drawn the past up to me like an unwilling ghost: I have kissed it on the forehead, mouth, and eyes, and now that my story is finished it has slipped back into the darkness, and I am left alone.

They have buried Geraldine. Not in the little church in the park, where all the Wilders are buried; she has a grave of her own outside the church, and on the marble headstone is the name "Beatrice Sinclair."

But I shall be buried in the church, and I know that my tablet will bear the inscription, "Sir Gerald Wilder, Kt." so that even our dust may not meet,--what matter?

I am not afraid to die; in fact, if I could be glad about anything, I should now be glad. Death seems to me such a little withered, contemptible figure, for ever jealous of Love--yet sometimes death seems to me like a white marble portico, seen down an alley of cypress trees, under a sky all dark with autumn.

Beneath the ocean spray Strange things lie hid away; And in the gloom Of many a tomb Lie stranger things than they. But in the world, I wis, Nought is more strange than this-- The love of Death for May. Nothing more strange above The skies where eagles rove; Nothing below the winter snow Or flowers that spring winds move; Nought in eternity Or time, unless it be The love of Death for Love.

TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:

Page headers show the title as DEATH, THE KNIGHT, AND THE LADY; however, commas are not used on the title pages in the book, and that convention has been retained in this eBook.

Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _Punch_.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained from the original.

Inconsistencies in spelling and punctuation have been standardized.

Superscripted text immediately follows a carat character: y^e.