"Mother!" broke from his lips in answer He went to her blindly,
knowing only that they belonged to each other, and that, in some
inscrutable way, they had been kept apart until it was too late.
He took her into his arms, holding her close, and whispering,
brokenly, what only she and God might hear! Ruth turned away,
sobbing, as if it was something too holy for her to see. 

Miss Ainslie, transfigured with unearthly light, lifted her face
to his.  Her lips quivered for an instant, then grew cold beneath
his own.  She sank back among the pillows, with her eyes closed,
but with yet another glory upon the marble whiteness of her face,
as though at the end of her journey, and beyond the mists that
divided them, her dream had become divinely true. 

Then he, who should have been her son, bent down, the tears
falling unheeded upon her face, and kissed her again. 

End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Lavender and Old Lace