All this time my gaze had been riveted on her only.

But when she lifted her white face, tried to lift it, rather, and he drew her up, and then when both white faces met and seemed to blend in something rapt, awesome, tragic as life--then I saw Steele.
I saw a god, a man as beautiful as she was.

They might have stood, indeed, they did stand alone in the heart of a desert--alone in the world--alone with their love and their agony.

It was a solemn and profound moment for me.

I faintly realized how great it must have been for them, yet all the while there hammered at my mind the vital thing at stake.