us together now? Give me a little hope that in the eternal
pilgrimage there is some bond between us and some rebirth where
we may met again."

"I will tell you that also before we part. I have grown to
believe that you do love me - and therefore love something which
is infinitely above me."

"And do you love me at all? Am I nothing, Vanna - Vanna?"

"My friend," she said, and laid her hand on mine.

A silence, and then she spoke, very low.

"You must be prepared for very great change, Stephen, and yet
believe that it does not really change things at all. See how
even the gods pass and do not change! The early gods of India are
gone and Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna have taken their places and are
one and the same. The old Buddhist stories say that in heaven
"The flowers of the garland the God wore are withered, his robes
of majesty are waxed old and faded; he falls from his high
estate, and is re-born into a new life." But he lives still in
the young God who is born among men. The gods cannot die, nor can
we nor anything that has life. Now I must go in.

I sat long in the moonlight thinking. The whole camp was sunk in
sleep and the young dawn was waking upon the peaks when I turned
in.

The days that were left we spent in wandering up the Lidar River