eople live just as long as they really
want to and that we do not die save with our own consent?"

"Certainly."

I walked with him along the gravel path. He stopped for a moment at the
gate, his head bowed as if in thought.

"Certainly," he said again, "but they must really want to and not merely
think they want to. Conscious will is an illusion that can deceive none
save the vulgar. People who believe they will a thing because they say
they will it, are fools. The only genuine act of volition is that in
which all the obscure forces of our nature take part. That will is
unconscious, it is divine. It moulds the world. By it we exist, and
when it fails we cease to be. The world _wills_, otherwise it would not
exist."

We walked on a few steps farther.

"Look here," he exclaimed, tapping his stick against the bark of an oak
tree that spread out its broad canopy of grey branches above our heads,
"if that fellow there had not _willed_ to grow, I should like to know
what power could have made him do so."

But I had ceased to listen.

"So you have hopes," I said at length, "that Marguerite . . ."

But he was a stubborn little old fellow.

He murmured as he walked away: "The Will's crowning Victory is Love."

And I stood and watched him as he departed with little quick steps,
beating time to a tune that was running in his head.

I went quickly back to the chateau and found little Marguerite. The
moment I saw her, I realized that she had the will to live. She was
still very pale and very thin, but her eyes had more colour in them and
were not so big, and her lips, lately so dead-looking and so silent,
were gay with prattling talk.

"You are late," she said. "Come here, see! I have a theatre and actors.
Play me a beautiful piece. They say that 'Hop o' my Thumb' is nice. Play
'Hop o' my Thumb' for me."

[Illustration: 090]

You may be sure I did not refuse. However, I encountered great
difficulties at the very outset of my undertaking. I pointed out to
Marguerite that the only actors she had were princes and princesses,
and that we wanted woodmen, cooks and a certain number of folks of all
sorts.

She thought for a moment and then said:

"A prince dressed like a cook; that one there looks like a cook, don't
you think?"

"Yes, I think so too."

"Well, then, we'll make woodmen and cooks out of all the princes we have
over."

And that's what we did. O Wisdom, what a day we spent together!

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