The Mystery of Choice

oment, steeped in magic and heavy with oblivion, that sometimes lingers in the soul of man, annihilating space and time. If, at the feet of God, a year is a second passed

f the magic hold, the calm years crowd on one by one; and yet it all is but a second-that magic moment that comes on

, struck and lay flung out on the earth, the magic second grew until the crystal days fe

y also have ended, not in vague night, but in the sunburst of another second-such a second as ticks from my watch as I write, quick, sharp, j

g in a heap, then turned

eart!"

s already

field, speaking of what had been and of all that was to be. It was so simple-everythin

en, now they we

eart; "who knows how long

ference can that

o

es

d Sweethear

un turned to a mound of cinders; t

shadow!" sai

d, thrilled w

rs," I w

cast were whi

s as breaking surf; a bird-note came from th

re, Sweetheart, now

" she sighed; "is it faire

again. In France the poplars are as yellow as our oaks. In Morbihan

ing-let us wait

he

er

l spr

the sea. What is that book there under your feet-that i

not s

g it

, leaning on my shoulder, read. The tall stars flared like candles, flooding the page with diamond light; the earth, perfumed with blo

the soul," she read. Even the winds

ars fall, and the seas boil, and when souls shall be joined again to their bodies; and when the girl who hath been buried alive shal

ll know what it

of the starlight on the page w

n; for what ca

ouring, thou labour

u shalt

ched like a skin, and shall ca

with signs, by the wi

night; by the daybreak and t

adr is better than

do we worship, and of thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right way, in the way of those to w

rth and heaven I heard the sound of a voice

heart; and she rose, placing her w

fretted and carved like lacework; and where the pines had faded, the twin towers of a cathedral loomed; and where the hills swept across the horizon, the roofs of a white city gl

art!" I

already in