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“He sat back, as if for theon the depths of the fire This was the first time since he had come forat hi tihts, as if they were palpable in the air like smoke Not read them, you understand, but feel the power of theh his face was very young, which I knew , he appeared infinitely old, wise I could not define it, because I could not explain how the youthful lines of his face, how his eyes expressed innocence and this age and experience at the same time

“He rose now and looked at Claudia, his hands loosely clasped behind his back Her silence all this time had been understandable to me These were not her questions, yet she was fascinated with hi from him all the while that he spoke toelse now as they looked at each other He had moved to his feet with a body totally at his coesture rooted in necessity, ritual, fluctuation of mind; and his stillness noas unearthly And she, as I’d never seen before, possessed the sa at each other with a preternatural understanding from which I was simply excluded

“I was so to them, as ain that he’d come to understand she did not believe or share my concept of evil

“His speech co ‘This is the only real evil left,’ he said to the flames

“ ‘Yes,’ I answered, feeling that all-consu all concerns as it always had for me

“ ‘It’s true,’ he said, shockingmy sadness, my despair

“ ‘Then God does not exist… you have no knowledge of His existence?’

“ ‘None,’ he said

“ ‘No knowledge!’ I said it again, unafraid of my simplicity, my miserable human pain

“ ‘None’

“ ‘And no vampire here has discourse with God or with the devil!’

“ ‘No va in his eyes ‘And as far as I know today, after four hundred years, I a vampire in the world’

“I stared at him, astonished

“Then it began to sink in It was as I’d always feared, and it was as lonely, it was as totally without hope Things would go on as they had before, on and on My search was over I sat back listlessly watching those licking flames

“It was futile to leave hiain the same story ‘Four hundred years’ — I think I repeated the words ‘four hundred years’ I re very slowly in the fire, drifting doards in a process that would take it the night, and it was pitted with tiny holes where soh had burned away fast, and in each of these tiny holes there danced a flaer flames; and all of these tiny flames with their black mouths see without singing The chorus had no need of singing; in one breath in the fire, which was continuous, it