of it: that, he gave me to
understand, he had tidied up and dismissed from his mind. It was the
future, its coming problems, its possibilities, its new developments,
about which he seemed eager to talk. One might have imagined him a
young man with the years before him.

One evening--it was near the end--we were alone together. The
woodcutter and his wife had gone down into the valley to see their
children, and the nurse, leaving him in my charge, had gone for a walk.
We had carried him round to his favourite side of the hut facing the
towering mass of the Jungfrau. As the shadows lengthened it seemed to
come nearer to us, and there fell a silence upon us.

Gradually I became aware that his piercing eyes were fixed on me, and
in answer I turned and looked at him.

"I wonder if we shall meet again," he said, "or, what is more
important, if we shall remember one another."

I was puzzled for the moment. We had discussed more than once the
various religions of mankind, and his attitude towards the orthodox
beliefs had always been that of amused contempt.

"It has been growing upon me these last few days," he continued. "It
flashed across me the first time I saw you on the boat. We were
fellow-students. Something, I don't know what, drew us very close
together. There was a woman. They were burning her. And then there
was a rush of people and a sudden darkness, and your eyes close to
mine."

I suppose it was some form of hypnotism, for, as he spoke, his
searching eyes fixed on mine, there came to me a dream of narrow
streets filled with a strange crowd, of painted houses such as I had
never seen, and a haunting fear that seemed to be always lurking behind
each shadow. I shook myself free, but not without an effort.

"So that's what you meant," I said, "that evening in the Goortgasse.
You believe in it?"

"A curious thing happened to me," he said, "when I was a child. I
could hardly have been six years old. I had gone to Ghent with my
parents. I think it was to visit some relative. One day we went into
the castle. It was in ruins then, but has since been restored. We were
in what was once the council chamber. I stole away by myself to the
other end of the great room and, not knowing why I did so, I touched a
spring concealed in the masonry, and a door swung open with a harsh,
grinding noise. I remember peering round the opening. The others had
their backs towards me, and I slipped through and clos