“And so I can not undertake the task of guiding him in this harsh world that he must enter.  I have known, however, for some time that it would be undertaken and accomplished for me.  You have been sent to me, later than I thought, but still sent.  I have been waiting; I have been true to my creed, and have not been impatient.

“I intrust him to you as I intrust the fairest possession I have, knowing that you will feel the responsibility.  You will find him passionately affectionate, and in danger there; quick to anger, and in danger there; personally fascinating and beautiful, and in danger there; and in these three things his trial will be.  But he does not resent nor brood; he is docile, apt to listen, eager to comprehend; and he is truthful and sincere.”

I have given this in a continuous speech, much as Arthur told it me a few months ago, though it was the essence of a conversation.  The quiet man, with his dreamy eyes fixed on his face, he told me, and the fragrant Eastern garden seemed from moment to moment of the strange adventure to swim and become vague and phantasmal; but again the quiet air of certainty with which questions were asked and statements made gave him a curious sense of security, and an impulse to accept the indicated path, together with a sense of shrinking from such a responsibility.

“I do not, as I told you,” said the other, “want your answer now, but this day one year hence, August 19, 1879, I shall claim it.  And I have no doubt,” he added with a smile, “of what that answer will be.  But I beg of you do not give the question a hasty consideration and then reverse your decision.  Do not attempt to decide.  Let your choice be guided by circumstances; they are the safest guide, for they are not of our own making.

“I do not suppose,” he continued, “that I shall ever see you again on earth, as you proceed with your journey to-morrow; and indeed I think it will perhaps be as well that this should be our last conversation, so that nothing else should interfere to blur the impression.

“One last word then.”  He paused for a moment, and the stillness was broken only by the faintest stir of odorous wind among the spice-trees and a waft of distant evening noises.

“You are treading a path, though you do not realize it, which it is not given to many men to tread.  You have had your first intimation of the goal to-day, and the future will not be wanting in indications of the same; but, as I have said, you will suddenly, when you least expect it, step inside the circle, and everything will be changed.

“To you I wish to intrust a future that I can not mould myself, to be moulded, not for me, but for the great Master of all.  You are the chosen instrument for this.  My work lies in another region, which you will realize on that day when all things are made plain.

“Only remember that your destiny is high and arduous, and that a single false step may throw you from a precipice that has taken years to scale once, and that must be scaled again.  For you walk among the clouds, or very near them; you are not defiled by any gross habitual sin; your heart is pure, and you have known suffering.  You are a true novice.