“I can never thank you enough!” I said earnestly.  “I dare say you know something of what I have seen on my journey?”

“Something, but not all,” he replied.  “Of course I know what worlds and systems you saw, but what was said to you, or what special lessons were given you for your comfort, I cannot tell.”  “Then I will describe everything while it is fresh upon me,” I returned.  “I feel that I must do so in order that you may understand how glad I am,—­how grateful I am to you.”

I then related the different scenes through which I had passed, omitting no detail.  Heliobas listened with profound interest and attention.  When I had finished, he said: 

“Yours has been a most wonderful, I may say almost exceptional, experience.  It proves to me more than ever the omnipotence of will.  Most of those who have been placed by my means in the Uplifted or Electric state of being, have consented to it simply to gratify a sense of curiosity—­few therefore have gone beyond the pure ether, where, as in a sea, the planets swim.  Cellini, for instance, never went farther than Venus, because in the atmosphere of that planet he met the Spirit that rules and divides his destiny.  Zara—­she was daring, and reached the outer rim of the Great Circle; but even she never caught a glimpse of the great Central Sphere.  You, differing from these, started with a daring aim which you never lost sight of till you had fulfilled it.  How true are those words:  ’Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’!  It is not possible,” and here he sighed, “that amid such wonders you could have remembered me—­it were foolish on my part to expect it.”

“I confess I thought nothing of you,” I said frankly, “till I was approaching Earth again; but then my memory prompted me in time, and I did not forget your request.”

“And what did you learn?” he asked anxiously.

“Simply this.  Azul said that I might deliver you this message:  When death lies like a gift in your hand, withhold it, and remember her.”

“As if I did not always guide myself by her promptings!” exclaimed Heliobas, with a tender smile.

“You might forget to do so for once,” I said.

“Never!” he replied fervently.  “It could not be.  But I thank you, my child, for having thought of me—­the message you bring shall be impressed strongly on my mind.  Now, before you leave me to-night, I must say a few necessary words.”

He paused, and appeared to consider profoundly for some minutes.  At last he spoke.