I listened, trembling; I held the rose against my breast between my clasped hands.

“O Sorrowful Star!” went on the Voice—­“What shall become of thee if thou forsakest the way of Love!  O little Sphere of beauty and delight, why are thy people so blind!  O that their eyes were lifted unto Heaven!—­their hearts to joy!—­their souls to love!  Who is it that darkens life with sorrow?—­who is it that creates the delusion of death?”

I found my speech suddenly.

“Nay, surely,”—­I said, half whispering—­“We must all die!”

“Not so!” and the mystic Voice rang out imperatively—­“There is no death!  For God is alive!—­and from Him Life only can emanate!”

I held my peace, moved by a sudden sweet awe.

“From Eternal Life no death can come,”—­continued the Voice—­“from Eternal Love flows Eternal Joy.  Change there is,—­change there must be to higher forms and higher planes,—­but Life and Love remain as they are, indestructible—­’the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever!’”

I bent my face over the rose against my breast,—­its perfume was deliciously soft and penetrating, and half unconsciously I kissed its velvet petals.  As I did this a swift and dazzling radiance poured shower-like through the air, and again I heard mysterious chords of rhythmic melody rising and falling like distant waves of the sea.  The grave, tender Voice spoke once again: 

“Rise and go hence!” it said, in tones of thrilling gentleness—­ “Keep the gift God sends thee!—­take that which is thine!  Meet that which hath sought thee sorrowing for many centuries!  Turn not aside again, neither by thine own will nor by the will of others, lest old errors prevail!  Pass from vision into waking!—­from night to day!—­ from seeming death to life!—­from loneliness to love!—­and keep within thy heart the message of a Dream!”

The light beating about me like curved wings slowly paled and as slowly vanished—­yet I felt that I must still kneel and wait.  This atmosphere of awe and trembling gradually passed away,—­and then, rising as I thought, and holding the mystic rose with one hand still against my breast, I turned to feel my way through the darkness which now encompassed me.  As I did this my other hand was caught by someone in a warm, eager clasp, and I was guided along with an infinitely tender yet masterful touch which I had no hesitation in obeying.  Step by step I moved with a strange sense of happy reliance on my unseen companion—­darkness or distance had no terrors for me.  And as I Went onward with my hand held firmly in that close yet gentle grasp, my thoughts became as it were suddenly cleared into a heaven of comprehension—­I looked back upon years of work spread out like an arid desert uncheered by any spring of sweet water—­and I saw all that my life had lacked—­all to which I had unconsciously pressed forward longingly without any distinct recognition of my own aims, and only trusting to the infinite powers of God and Nature to amend my incompleteness by the perfection of the everlasting Whole.  And now—­had the answer come?  At any rate, I felt I was no longer alone.  Someone who seemed the natural other half of myself was beside me in the shadows of sleep—­I could have spoken, but would not, for fear of breaking the charm.