out of the years, and do hurt the heart,
even whilst that the heart doth hunger of that which doth so pain. Yet,
truly, Mine Own did be now with me, as you do know so that I had joy
all about my heart; yet did all the years of my lost delights and of my
pain, be in the spaces of my memory, and Mine Own now to have stirred
all; so that no words that did be ever shaped of man should help me to
have ease in speech.

And Mine Own Maid to know how it did be with me; and she to have said
the thing, scarce wotting, even as her spirit did set it through her
lips; and she before then to have forgot so utter as I; and now she to
be stirred likewise with me; so that, in verity, we to hold hands in the
great Darkness upon the Slope, and to wait till the pain and strange
trouble did go somewhat from our hearts; and we to have power again to
know truly that we did be again together in sweet verity, after a mighty
Eternity.

And thus did we go, and even in that strange Night to have an
everlasting coming together; so that surely our two spirits to be nigh
made one, somewise; and this to be that sweet and holy thing which I do
name Love; and it to be my glory and Astonishment that Love hath come
unto me. And with you that have love, I am as a Brother in holy delight;
but with all that have not known Love, or to have missed Love, I am a
Mourner, and my heart to pray that they to know this Wonder, ere they
die; for else shall they die so green and bitter as they be born, and to
have grown nowise unto Ripeness, which doth be Charity--the end of life
and the Crown of Humanity.

And surely I to go forward again now with my telling. And you to know
that on the eighth day upon the Slope, about the end of the ninth hour,
there to be an upward seeming of light, afar before us in the Darkness,
and did show as a dull and vague sheen above us in the night. And truly,
I to know that we did be come at last a-near unto the Night Land.

And we went upward then very eager through the dark; and the dim shine
did grow, ever; so that we soon to see it very plain, as a looming of
light afar upward. And we ever to climb and to go onward. And lo! in the
fourteenth hour of that day, we came up slowly out of the Night upon the
Slope, and stood at the ending of that strange road Where The Silent
Ones Walk.

And surely it did be as that I was come home, and to have set my feet
again upon familiar Lands; and this to bring to you how far off I did
seem to h