complete rupture--so it seemed to him--which was
the difficulty. His heart at times leaped up to join this band of
determined, unhesitating soldiers; to be one in an army; to have a cause;
to have a banner waving over his head; to have done with isolation,
aloofness, speculation ending in nothing, and dreams which profited
nobody: but even in those moments when he was nearest to a confession of
discipleship he was restrained by faintness and doubt. If he were to
enrol himself as a convert his conversion would be due not to an
irresistible impulse, but to a theory, to a calculation, one might almost
say, that such and such was the proper course to take.

"He went again to the meeting, and he went again and again. One night,
as he came home, he walked as he had walked before, with Demariste. She
was going as far as his door for the manuscript which he had now copied
for his own use. As they went along a man met them who raised a lantern,
and directed it full in their faces.

"'The light of death,' said Demariste.

"'Who is he?'

"'I know him well; he is a spy. I have often seen him at the door of our
assembly.'

"'Do you fear death?'

"'I? Has not Christ died?'

"Charmides hath fallen in love with this slave, but it was love so
different from any love which he had felt before for a woman, that it
ought to have had some other name. It was a love of the soul, of that
which was immortal, of God in her; it was a love too, of no mere
temporary phenomenon, but of reality outlasting death into eternity.
There was thus a significance, there was a grandeur in it wanting to any
earthly love. It was the new love with which men were henceforth to love
women--the love of Dante for Beatrice.

"She waited at the door while he went inside to fetch in the parchment.
He brought it out and gave it to her, and as he stood opposite to her he
looked in her face, and her eyes were not averted. He caught her hand,
but she drew back.

"''Tis but for a day or two,' she said; 'a week will see the end.'

"'A week!' he cried! 'Oh, my Demariste, rather a week with thee than an
age with anything less than thee!'

"'You will have to die too. Dare you die? The spirit may be willing,
but the flesh may be weak.'

"'Death? Yes, death, if only I am yours!'

"'Nay, nay, my beloved, not for me, but for the Lord Jesus!'

"He bent nearer to her; his head was on her neck, and his arms were round
her body. Oh, son and daughter of