very book in which the vanity of all things is
most insisted on has lived itself nearly three thousand years. Solomon
has given the lie to his own despair of being remembered. This is why I
never feel sad now when I think about the other fears which made him
discontented."

"Were they fears? I believe he wanted to conquer the world, which is
strong, and his own weakness, which was even stronger, as an adversary.
We must know the measure of a man's desires before we can sound the
depths of his regrets."

Again she put out her hand, but this time she took his, following the
instinct of a child who finds itself with a trusted companion in a
gloomy road.

"Nothing unknown can be wished for," she said gently, "and so, if some
few things did not last, we should not have this dissatisfaction at the
thought of their perishing. But what is troubling you? The greatest
cross is to be without a cross. You, dearest, are never at ease unless
you are at least suffering tortures for some friend."

"I am thinking of myself now--myself only. I can't forget that every
supreme blessing must be bought with long sadness, both before and
after, and now we are together, I am wondering what I should do--if--if
we were separated. I must have the courage to face that thought. I can't
put it away because it has defied me, and when a thought defies me, I
have to meet it fairly. I do not believe in denying its force, or
running away in an opposite direction. I hear its argument and I try to
answer it."

She moved towards him and said in a low voice--

"I have one prayer, and this is that I may outlive you. When you die, I
shall soon follow you. It won't seem so very long. But if I should die
first I should have to wait, because you would never yield, and your
grief would cut sharply and slowly, a little more and a little more each
day. And although I might be with you, you could not see me. I should
know all your thoughts and yet I could say nothing. Almighty God is too
kind to let me be so unhappy after I am dead. This is 'the confidence
wherein I trust.' This is why I have no fears now. We may have great
trials--how can we expect to be exempt from them? But we must help each
other to bear them and then they will seem more precious than joys. You
see, don't you? You understand, don't you?"

He could not trust himself to reply. There are certain utterances,
certain turns of thought, which are so restricted to one sex or the
other, so exclus