of God as are vouchsafed to you!  They are truly in the darkness and shadow of death,—­they hear no angel music,—­they sit in dungeons, howled at by preachers and teachers who make no actual attempt to lead them into light and liberty,—­while we, the so-called ‘upper’ classes, are imprisoned as closely as they, and crushed by intolerable weights of learning, such as many of us are not fitted to bear.  Those who aspire heavenwards are hurled to earth,—­those who of their own choice cling to death, become so fastened to it, that even if they wished, they could not rise.  Believe me, you will be sorely disheartened in your efforts toward the highest good,—­you will find most people callous, careless, ignorant, and forever scoffing at what they do not, and will not, understand,—­you had better leave us to our dust and ashes,”—­and a little mirthless laugh escaped her lips,—­“for to pluck us from thence now will almost need a second visitation of Christ, in whom, if He came, we should probably not believe!  Moreover, you must not forget that we have read Darwin,—­and we are so charmed with our monkey ancestors, that we are doing our best to imitate them in every possible way,—­in the hope that, with time and patience, we may resolve ourselves back into the original species!”

With which bitter sarcasm, uttered half mockingly, half in good earnest, she left him and returned to her guests.  Not very long afterward, he having sought and found Villiers, and suggested to him that it was time to make a move homeward, approached her in company with his friend, and bade her farewell.

“I don’t think we shall see you often in society, Mr. Alwyn”—­she said, rather wistfully, as she gave him her hand,—­“You are too much of a Titan among pigmies!”

He flushed and waved aside the remark with a few playful words; unlike his Former Self, if there was anything in the world he shrank from, it was flattery, or what seemed like flattery.  Once outside the house he drew a long breath of relief, and glanced gratefully up at the sky, bright with the glistening multitude of stars.  Thank God, there were worlds in that glorious expanse of ether peopled with loftier types of being than what is called Humanity!  Villiers looked at him questioningly: 

“Tired of your own celebrity, Alwyn?” he asked, taking him by the arm,—­“Are the pleasures of Fame already exhausted?”

Alwyn smiled,—­he thought of the fame of Sah-luma, Laureate bard of Al-kyris!

“Nay, if the dream that I told you of had any meaning at all”—­he replied—­“then I enjoyed and exhausted those pleasures long ago!  Perhaps that is the reason why my ‘celebrity’ seems such a poor and tame circumstance now.  But I was not thinking of myself,—­I was wondering whether, after all, the slight power I have attained can be of much use to others.  I am only one against many.”

“Nevertheless, there is an old maxim which says that one hero makes a thousand”—­said Villiers quietly—­“And it is an undeniable fact that the vastest number ever counted, begins at the very beginning with one!”