stood at my side and I
was blind.

Now that I have climbed a little higher on the Mount of Vision it seems
even to myself that this could not be. Yet it was, and it is true of not
this only but of how much else!

She knew me. I learnt that later, but she made no sign. Her simplicities
had carried her far beyond and above me, to places where only the winged
things attain--"as a bird among the bird-droves of God."

I have since known that this power of direct simplicity in her was why
among the great mountains we beheld the Divine as the emanation of
the terrible beauty about us. We cannot see it as it is--only in some
shadowing forth, gathering sufficient strength for manifestation from
the spiritual atoms that haunt the region where that form has been for
ages the accepted vehicle of adoration. But I was now to set forth to
find another knowledge--to seek the Beauty that blinds us to all other.
Next day the man who was directing my preparations for travel sent me
word from Simla that all was ready and I could start two days later. I
told my friends the time of parting was near.

"But it was no surprise to me," I added, "for I had heard already that
in a very few days I should be on my way."

Mrs. Ingmar was more than kind. She laid a frail hand on mine.

"We shall miss you indeed. If it is possible to send us word of your
adventures in those wild solitudes I hope you will do it. Of course
aviation will soon lay bare their secrets and leave them no mysteries,
so you don't go too soon. One may worship science and yet feel it
injures the beauty of the world. But what is beauty compared with
knowledge?"

"Do you never regret it?" I asked.

"Never, dear Mr. Ormond. I am a worshipper of hard facts and however
hideous they may be I prefer them to the prismatic colours of romance."

Brynhild, smiling, quoted;

"Their science roamed from star to star
And than itself found nothing greater.
What wonder? In a Leyden jar
They bottled the Creator?"

"There is nothing greater than science," said Mrs. Ingmar with soft
reverence. "The mind of man is the foot-rule of the universe."

She meditated for a moment and then added that my kind interests in
their plans decided her to tell me that she would be returning to
Europe and then to Canada in a few months with a favourite niece as her
companion while Brynhild would remain in India with friends in Mooltan
for a time. I looked eagerly at her but she was lost in h