Who could?
Besides, I could read in his face a horror mixed with thankfulness at
the escape, as his memory recalled the madness which would have urged to
guilt, her who was about to leave the scenes of earthly passion. I
invited him to return with me. He did so, and I left him alone with
Evelyn. I knew that his presence would now give her no shock.
What passed between them I never heard; but it was not beyond
conjecture. The method of his regard for her subsequently, fully
revealed it. It was the most lofty and refined feeling of which humanity
is capable--the worship of the artist--the friendship of the man.
Well,--the last scene arrived. We knew that the time had come. It was,
as she had hoped, at sunset. She gazed long at the changing splendors of
the western sky. 'Such,' she said, 'is death. Life merely revolves away
from us, but the soul still shines the same upon another sphere. The
faith that invests death with terror is a false one. We pass from one
world to another--drop one style of existence for a higher. We enter on
a life in which may be realized all which here we have vainly sought
for. The soul-longings shall all be there fulfilled. Come soon--all of
you.
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