Cynthia after this seldom
went far afield, and I ranged the hills and woods alone; but it was all
absurdly and continuously happy, though I began to wonder how long it
could last, and whether my faculties and energies, such as they were,
could continue thus unused. And I had, too, in my mind that other scene
which I had beheld, of how the boy was withdrawn from the two old people
in the other valley. Was it always thus, I wondered? Was it so, that
souls were drawn upwards in ceaseless pilgrimage, loving and passing on,
and leaving in the hearts of those who stayed behind a longing
unassuaged, which was presently to draw them onwards from the peace
which they loved perhaps too well?
XXX
The serene life came all to an end very suddenly, and with no warning.
One day I had been sitting with Cynthia, and the child was playing on
the floor with some little things--stones, bits of sticks, nuts--which
it had collected. It was a mysterious game too, accompanied with much
impressive talk and gesticulations, much emphatic lecturing of
recalcitrant pebbles, with interludes of unaccountable laughter.
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