I
dread the time when I shall have to leave it. But we won't speak of
that--that's forbidden ground."

"We'll speak only of the world we've created for ourselves. It's a whole
planet with only you and I for its sole inhabitants. The planet Earth is
far away in space--just a cold white star amongst a wilderness of
others."

"I used to think you cold and bloodless--that was at Arles and Nimes."

"We were far apart then. We were next to one another in the physical
plane, and yet a million miles away in the plane of reality. Only the
invisible things are the realities of life.... You were to leave Nimes
the next day, and I never expected to see you again."

"You remember the arena at Arles, at sunset, when you climbed up to
stand beside me. Did you know then that I wanted you to speak to me?

"Yes, I knew that. But there was the barrier between us."

"Were we destined to meet, do you think?"

"_Quien sabe?_"

There was a long silence between them--a silence which held no
constraint, a silence that exists only between those in deep sympathy.
Silence is the test of true friendship.

"I was so glad to know," she said at length. "It outweighed everything
else."

There was no need to put her thoughts more explicitly.

"Didn't you guess before?" he answered gently.

"I couldn't be sure, and the doubt tortured me. I thought it might only
be pity. Such a world of difference!"

"You're sure now?"

"Yes; your voice has told me more than your words. Even the notes of the
birds soften when they...." She left the sentence uncompleted.

"It was Larssen who brought us together," he meditated.

"Larssen! He dominates us both. He seems to hold us in his hands. He's
like ... like Fate. Pitiless, relentless."

"And, like Fate, to be fought to the end."

"I love you for your weakness, and yet I love you as the fighter. How
contradictory it sounds!"

"Such seeming contradiction comes from elision. One leaves out the train
of thought in between. Between you and me there's no need for the
lengthy explanation. There's scarcely need for words at all."

"But yet I love to hear you speak. Your words heal."

"Dr Hegelmann is shrewd as well as marvellously skilful. He said to me
to-day: 'I can see you are obeying orders. Frauelein needs your doctoring
as much as my surgery.'"

"He's a dear man as well as a great man."

Riviere burst out impulsively: "But the days fly by and my Cinderella's
midnight rushes nearer!"

"Not