’What is this that has come to me that I can say the name of God?  It tortures no longer, it is as balm.  But He is far off and hears nothing.  He called us and we answered not.  Now it is we who call, and He will not hear.  I will lie down and die.  It cannot be that a man must live and live forever in pain and anguish.  Here will I lie, and it will end.  O Thou whose face I have seen in the night, make it possible for a man to die!’

The watcher loosed herself from her companion’s clasp, and stood upright upon the edge of the cliff, clasping her hands together and saying low, as to herself, ‘Father, Father!’ as one who cannot refrain from that appeal, but who knows the Father loves best, and that to intercede is vain; and longing was in her face and joy.  For it was he, and she knew that he could not now fail, but would reach to the celestial country and to the shining of the sun; yet that it was not hers to help him, nor any man’s, nor angel’s.  But the little Pilgrim was ignorant, not having been taught; and she committed herself to those depths, though she feared them, and though she knew not what she could do.  And once more the dense air closed over her, and the vacancy swallowed her up, and when she reached the rocks below, there lay something at her feet which she felt to be a man; but she could not see him nor touch him, and when she tried to speak, her voice died away in her throat and made no sound.  Whether it was the wind that caught it and swept it quite away, or that the well of that depth profound sucked every note upwards, or whether because it was not permitted that either man or angel should come out of their sphere, or help be given which was forbidden, the little Pilgrim knew not,—­for never had it been said to her that she should stand aside where need was.  And surprise which was stronger than the icy wind, and for a moment a great dismay, took hold upon her,—­for she understood not how it was that the bond of silence should bind her, and that she should be unable to put forth her hand to help him whom she heard moaning and murmuring, but could not see.  And scarcely could her feet keep hold of the awful rock, or her form resist the upward sweep of the wind; but though he saw her not nor she him, yet could not she leave him in his weakness and misery, saying to herself that even if she could do nothing, it must be well that a little love should be near.

Then she heard him speak again, crouching under the rock at her feet; and he said faintly to himself, ’That was no dream.  In the land of darkness there are no dreams nor voices that speak within us.  On the earth they were never silent struggling and crying; but there—­all blank and still.  Therefore it was no dream.  It was One who came and looked me in the face; and love was in His eyes.  I have not seen love, oh, for so long!  But it was no dream.  If God is a dream I know not, but love I know.  And He said to me, “Arise and go.”  But to whom must I go?  The words are words that once I knew, and the face I knew.  But to whom, to whom?’