I see," he
added, "very great and beautiful things ahead of you, and very sad and
painful things as well. But you are close to the light, and it is
breaking all about you with a splendour which you cannot guess."
He rose up, he took my hand in his own and laid the other on my brow,
and I felt his heart go out to mine and gather me to him, as a child is
gathered to a father's arms. And then he went silently and lightly upon
his way.
XVI
The time moved on quietly enough in the land of delight. I made
acquaintance with quite a number of the soft-voiced contented folk.
Sometimes it interested me to see the change coming upon one or another,
a wonder or a desire that made them sit withdrawn and abstracted, and
breaking with a sort of effort out of the dreamful mood. Then they would
leave us, sometimes quite suddenly, sometimes with courteous adieus.
New-comers, too, kept arriving, to be made pleasantly at home. I found
myself seeing more of Cynthia. She was much with Lucius, and they seemed
as gay as ever, but I saw that she was sometimes puzzled. She said to me
one day as we sat together, "I wish you would tell me what this is all
about? I do not want to change it, and I am very happy, but isn't it all
rather pointless? I believe you have some secret you are keeping from
me.
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