I called to the sea, and asked
it of the stars, and the sea answered me thus:

"'Hope has rent her raiment, and the stars are set.'

"I called again, and asked of the land where I should go, and the land
did not answer, but the sea answered me a second time:

"'Child of the mist, wander in the mist, and in darkness seek for
light.'

"Then I wept because Hope had rent her starry garment and in darkness I
must seek for light. And while I still wept, _you_ rose out of the sea
and sat before me in the boat. I had never seen you before, and still
I felt that I had known you always. You did not speak, and I did not
speak, but you looked into my heart and saw its trouble. Then I looked
into your heart, and read what was written. And this was written:

"'Woman whom I knew before the Past began, and whom I shall know when
the Future is ended, why do you weep?'

"And my heart answered, 'I weep because I am lost upon the waters of
the earth, because Hope has rent her starry robes, and in everlasting
darkness I must seek for light that is not.' Then your heart said, '_I_
will show you light,' and bending forward you touched me on the breast.

"And suddenly an agony shook me like the agonies of birth and death,
and the sky was full of great-winged angels who rolled up the mist as
a cloth, and drew the veils from the eyes of Night, and there, her feet
upon the globe, and her star-set head piercing the firmament of heaven,
stood Hope breathing peace and beauty. She looked north and south and
east and west, then she looked upwards through the arching vaults of
heaven, and wherever she set her eyes, bright with holy tears, the
darkness shrivelled and sorrow ceased, and from corruption arose the
Incorruptible. I gazed and worshipped, and as I did so, again the sea
spoke unquestioned:

"'In darkness thou hast found light, in Death seek for wisdom.'

"Then once more Hope rent her starry robes, and the angels drew down a
veil over the eyes of Night, and the sea swallowed me, and I sank till I
reached the deep foundations of mortal death. And there in the Halls of
Death I sat for ages upon ages, till at last I saw you come, and on your
lips was the word of wisdom that makes all things clear, but what it was
I cannot remember. Then I stretched out my hand to greet you, and woke,
and that is all my dream."

Beatrice ceased, her grey eyes set wide, as though they still strove to
trace their spiritual vision upon the air of earth,