better than apples and pears; next to that comes the joy that Eros bestows on mortals, and there must be an end to all that, too.  That, however, is above the level of apples and pears.  It is great, very great happiness, and mingled therefor with bitter sorrow.  Rapture and anguish—­who can lay down the border line that divides them?  Smiles and tears alike belong to both.  And you are weeping?  Aye, aye—­poor child!  Come here and kiss me.”  Damia drew the head of the kneeling girl close to her bosom and pressed her lips to Gorge’s brow.  Presently, however, she relaxed her embrace and, looking about the room, she exclaimed: 

“How you have mixed and upset the book-rolls!  If only I could show you how clearly everything agrees and coincides.  We know now exactly how it will all happen.  By the day after to-morrow there will be no more earth, no more sky; and I will tell you this, child:  If, when Serapis falls, the universe does not crumble to pieces like a ruinous hovel, then the wisdom of the Magians is a lie, the course of the stars has nothing to do with the destinies of the earth and its inhabitants, the planets are mere lamps, the sun is no more than a luminous furnace, the old gods are marsh-fires, emanations from the dark bog of men’s minds—­and the great Serapis. . . .  But why be angry with him?  There is no doubt—­no if nor but. . . .  Give me the diptychon and I will show you our doom.  There—­just here—­my sight is so dazzled, I cannot make it out.—­And if I could, what matter?  Who can alter here below what has been decided above?  Leave me to sleep now, and I will explain it all to you to-morrow if there is still time.  Poor child, when I think how we have tormented you to learn what you know, and how industrious you have been!  And now—­to what end?  I ask you, to what end?  The great gulf will swallow up one and all.”

“So be it, so be it!” cried Gorgo interrupting her.  “Then, at any rate, nothing that I love on earth will be lost to me before I die!”

“And the enemy will perish in the same ruin!” continued Damia, her eyes sparkling with revived fire.  “But where shall we go to—­where?  The soul is divine by nature and cannot be destroyed.  It must return—­say, am I right or wrong?—­It will return to its first fount and cause; for like attracts and absorbs like, and thus our deification, our union with the god will be accomplished.”

“I believe it—­I am sure of it!” replied Gorgo with conviction.

“You are sure of it?” retorted the old woman.  “But I am not.  For our clearest knowledge is but guesswork when it is not based on numbers.  Nothing is proved or provable but by numbers, but they are surer than the rocks in the sea; that is why I believe in our coming doom, for, on those tablets, we have calculated it to a certainty.  But who can calculate evidence of the future fate of the soul?  If, indeed, the old order should not pass away—­if the depths should remain below and the empyrean still keep its place above—­then,