He felt slightly ashamed at his own emotion, and sought to dismiss it
with a smile.
"It's all nonsense, after all," he thought.
"Come," said Sina in a whisper that sounded like a sigh.
Solemnly, as if in their souls they bore away with them all the
chanting, and the prayers, the sighs and mystic lights, they went out
across the court-yard, side by side, and passed through the little door
leading to the mountain-slope. Here there was no living soul. The high
white wall and time-worn turrets seemed to shut them out from the world
of men. At their feet lay the oak forest; far below shone the river
like a mirror of silver, while in the distance fields and meadows were
merged in the dim horizon-line.
In silence they advanced to the edge of the slope, aware that they
ought to do something, to say something, yet feeling all the while that
they had not sufficient courage. Then Sina raised her head, when,
unexpectedly yet quite simply and naturally, her lips met Yourii's. She
trembled and grew pale as he gently embraced her, and for the first
time felt her warm, supple body in his arms. A bell chimed in that
silence. To Yourii it seemed to celebrate the moment in which each had
found the other. Sina, laughing, broke away from him and ran back.
"Auntie will wonder what has become of me! Wait here, and I'll be back
soon."
Afterwards Yourii could never remember if she had said this to him in a
loud, clear voice that echoed through the woodland, or if the words had
floated to him like a soft whisper on the evening breeze. He sat down
on the grass and smoothed his hair with his hand.
"How silly, and yet how delightful it all is!" he thought, smiling. In
the distance he heard Sina's voice.
"I'm coming, auntie, I'm coming."