“But it’s hard now. It’s hard when it ends,” she murmured.

“We might never have met at all,” he said resolutely. “We’ve had all we wanted tonight. It’s been as if all the noises of the world had blent into one, and then quite died away. Listen, Christie, there’s not a stir or movement. It’s silence like this that you and I have always wanted⁠ ⁠… all our lives.”

“But it’s hard when it ends,” she repeated.

“We mustn’t think of that,” he said. “Our thoughts will always be able to find this silence. We shall always be able to reach each other with our thoughts, wherever we are. Don’t you feel like that, Christie?”

“I try to,” she said.