golden haze.

We fell into silence. Now and then I glanced sidewise at my companion as
we made our soundless way over the thick moss. He looked so strong
and beautiful. His tall body was so fine, his shoulders so broad and
splendid! How could it be! How could it be! As he tramped beside me he
was thinking deeply, and he knew he need not talk to me. That made me
glad--that he should know me so well and feel me so near. That was what
he felt when he was with his mother, that she understood and that at
times neither of them needed words.

Until we had reached the patch of gorse where we intended to end our
walk we did not speak at all. He was thinking of things which led him
far. I knew that, though I did not know what they were. When we reached
the golden blaze we had seen the evening before it was a flame of gold
again, because--it was only for a few moments--the mist had blown apart
and the sun was shining on it.

As we stood in the midst of it together--Oh! how strange and beautiful
it was!--Mr. MacNairn came back. That was what it seemed to me--that he
came back. He stood quite still a moment and looked about him, and then
he stretched out his arms as I had stretched out mine. But he did it
slowly, and a light came into his face.

"If, after it was over, a man awakened as you said and found
himself--the self he knew, but light, free, splendid--remembering all
the ages of dark, unknowing dread, of horror of some black, aimless
plunge, and suddenly seeing all the childish uselessness of it--how he
would stand and smile! How he would stand and SMILE!"