Crossed in love they were, a while back... But they've not walked for many a long day now."
"No?
I wonder if - perhaps - they will again now..."
"Lor'! sir, what things you do say!
About that young lady -"
"What young lady?"
"The one that's waiting to see you.
She's in the parlour.
Miss Lawes, she said her name was."
"Oh!"
Rachel!
He felt a curious feeling of contraction, a shifting of perspective.
He had been peeping through at another world.
He had forgotten Rachel, for Rachel belonged to this life only... Again that curious shifting of perspective, that slipping back to a world of three dimensions only.
He opened the parlour door.
Rachel - with her honest brown eyes.
And suddenly, like a man awakening from a dream, a warm rush of glad reality swept over him.
He was alive - alive!
He thought: "There's only one life one can be sure about! This one!"
"Rachel!" he said, and, lifting her chin, he kissed her lips.