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SLOWLY over my consciousness of the sickbed and the humid room there dropped the dark veil of Heaven Spread out in all directions were the sentinel stars, splendid as they shone above the glinting towers of the glass city, and in this half-sleep, now aided by theto me

Each froave forth a precious glireat chords were struck inside each flayrations broadcast through all the universal world

Such sounds I had never heard with my earthly ears But no disclaimer can approximate this airy and translucent music, this harmony and symphony of celebration

Oh, Lord, if Thou wert music, this then would be Thy voice, and no discord could ever prevail against Thee Thou wouldst cleanse the ordinary world of every troubling noise with this, the fullest expression of Thy n, and all triviality would fade away, overwhel perfection

This was ue,

Stay with ed, and let ht and sound, but only give myself to it utterly and unquestionably

The stars grew large and infinite in their cold one and there relorious and sourceless illumination

I sers on hter still and ever closer, as though it were an ocean of itself, I felt a great saving coolness over all o away, don’t leaveI pressedhead into the pillow

But it had spent its tiht, and now ainst loos, such as a rosary laid across olden cross, and there a prayer book open toin a small stir of breeze that moved as well the smooth taffeta in ripples overhead in its wood frame

How lovely it all did sees that one, ht worn theht cherish these quiet ently croith a thousand lively recollections

I opened one, save one who sat besidedown at me with eyes both dreamy and remote and coldly blue, far paler than a suht as they fixed so idly and indifferently upon me

My Master here, with hands folded in his lap, a see all as if it could not touch his chiseled grandeur The smileless expression set upon his face seemed made there forever

"Merciless!" I whispered

"No, oh, no," he said His lips did not lassy city"

"Ah, yes, we’ve talked of it, have we not, of those priests who said I s, so antique, which I thought so very beautiful Not made by human hands, you see, but by the power invested in h in and the Saints were mine to discover"

"Don’t cast those old forn of the voice I heard so distinctly, a voice that pierced ht do, with his tone, his very tie, and reason now is but tomorrow’s superstition, and in that old restraint there lay a great subliain about the glassy city"

I sighed "You’ve seen the lass, as I have," I said, "when taken fro heat upon a spear of iron, a thing that melts and drips so that the artist’s wand may pull and stretch it, or fill it full of breath to forlass came up out of theto the clouds, and out of these great liquid jets were born the crowded towers of the glassy city-not i any form built by men, but perfect as the heated force of Earth had naturally ordained, in colors uniinable Who lived in such a place? How far away it seemed, yet utterly attainable But one short walk over hills sillowing green grass and leafy fluttering flowers of the same fantastical hues and tints, a quiet thunderous and impossible apparition"

I looked at hi off and back into s mean," I asked "Where is this place, and as I allowed to see it?"

He gave a sad sigh and looked away hi as before, only now I saw the thick blood in it, that once again, as it had been the night before, was pumped full of human heat from human veins, which had no doubt been his late repast this sa

"Won’t you even smile now as you say farewell?" I asked "If this bitter coldness now is all you feel, and you would let me die of this rampant fever? I’m sick unto death, you know it You know the nausea that I feel, you know the hurt inside my head, you know the ache in all my joints and how these cuts burn in my skin with their indisputable poison Why are you so very far away, yet here, co?"

"I feel the love I’ve always felt when I look at you," he said, " one I feel it It’s walled up inside where it should stay, perhaps, and let you die, for yes, you will, and then perhaps your priests will take you, for how can they not when there is no returning?"

"Ah, but what if there are many lands? What if on the second fall, I findearth and not the beauty first revealed toSo much is lost I can’t remember It seems I say those same words so much I can’t remember!"

I reached out He didn’t otten prayer book I felt the stiff velluers

"What’s killed your love? Was it the things I did? That I brought the man here who slew my brothers? Or that I died and saw such wonders? Answer hts and all iven h I lister will torture ain, open your mind as if it were a shell, and let ht you"

"Can you, Master? Can you understand how love and love alone could mean so very rass, the leaves of trees, the fingers of this hand that reaches for you? Love, Master Love And ill believe such sis when there are dexterous and labyrinthian creeds and philosophies of manmade and ever seductive complexity? Love I heard the sound of it I saw it Were these the delusions of a feverish mind, a mind afraid of death?"

"Perhaps," he said, his face still feelingless and motionless His eyes were narrow, prisoners of their own shrinking from what they saw "Ah, yes," he said "You die and I let you, and I think there ain your priests, your city"

"It’s not my time," I said "I know it And such a statement cannot be undone by aclock They meant, by a soul’s incarnate life, it wasn’t time Some destiny carved in my infant hand will not be so soon fulfilled or easily defeated"

"I can tip the odds, my child," he said This tihtened in his face, and his eyes greide and unguarded, the old self I knew and cherished "I can so easily take the last strength left in you" He leant over ations in the pupils of his eyes, the bright deep-pointed stars behind the darkening irises His lips, so wondrously decorated with all the tiny lines of human lips, were rosy as if a human kiss resided there "I can so easily take one last fatal drink of your child’s blood, one last quaff of all the freshness I so love, and in my arms I’ll hold a corpse so rich in beauty that all who see it eep, and that corpse will tell one, that much I’ll know, and no s to torture o there, I want to be with you!"

His lip worked in plain desperation He seeue and sadness hovering on the borders of his eyes His hand, out now to touch ht it as if it were the high waving branch of a tree above ers to my lips like somy head I laid them on my wounded cheek I felt the throb of the veno tremor within theht to feed you?" I whispered "And how can this be, and love be the very thing the world is made of? You are too beautiful to be overlooked I’m lost I cannot understand it But could I, if I were to live froet it?"

"You cannot live, Amadeo," he said sadly "You cannot live!" His voice broke "The poison’s traveled in you too deep, too far and wide, and little draughts of uish "Child, I can’t save you Close your eyes Take my farewell kiss There is no friendship between me and those on the far shore, but they must take what dies so naturally"

"Master, no! Master, I cannot try it alone Master, they sent me back, and you are here, and were bound to be, and how could they not have known it?"