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Marius nodded "He's alive But I don't really know that the way you think I do Not fro all these lovely pohich plague us I know it simply because I know "

He s in the h he wasn't sure why He beckoned for Louis to coether out of the room Marius put his arm around Louis's shoulder and they went down the iron stairs together, through the da slowly and heavily, exactly like a huht walk

"And you're sure of it?" Louis asked respectfully

Marius stopped "Oh, yes, quite sure " They looked at one another for a ifted yet not gifted at the sao out of Louis's eyes if he ever gained more power, if he ever had, for instance, a little of the blood of Marius in his veins

And this young one was hungry too; he was suffering; and he seeer and the pain

"Let reeably "1 knew the firstcould kill him That's the way it is with so this? Did he believe it again as he had before these trials had begun? He thought back to that night in San Francisco when he had walked down the broad clean-swept pavements of Market Street with his hands in his pockets, unnoticed by mortal men

"Forgive s they said of hi the ones anted to join hiht "

"I know," Marius said "But they are fools and I'hed softly Yes, he did believe it Then he eht be stronger, true, but then he ht lose the huive another; the gift of knowing others' suffering hich Louis had probably been born

But the night was over now for this one Louis took Marius's hand, and then turned and walked down the tin-walled corridor to where Eric waited to show him the way

Then Marius went up into the house

He had perhaps a full hour more before the sun forced hiive it up The lovely fresh s And he could hear the birds now, and the clear singing of a deep creek

He went into the great roo, where the fire had burnt down on the central hearth He found hiiant quilt that covered almost half the wall

Slowly he realized what he was seeing before hiures of the twins as they stood together in the green clearing beneath the burning sun The slow rhythm of Maharet's speech caes her words had conveyed So i, and how different it seemed now from the dreams Never had the dreams made him feel close to these women! And now he knew them; he knew this house

It was such a , where sorrow touched soood Maharet's soul attracted him; he loved the particular complexity of it, and he wished he could somehow tell her so

Then it was as if he caught hiotten for a little while to be bitter, to be in pain Maybe his soul was healing faster than he had ever supposed it could