the very core of my being by an unexplained yet most bitter
remorse, I cast myself down in deep abasement before her, ... I
caught her glittering robe ... I strove to say 'Forgive!' but I
was speechless as a convicted traitor in the presence of a wronged
queen! All at once the air about us was rent by a great noise of
thunder intermingled with triumphal music,--she drew her sheeny
garment from my touch in haste, and stooping to me where I knelt,
she kissed my forehead ... 'THY ROAD LIES THERE'--she murmured in
quick, soft tones, pointing to the vista of varying light and
shadow,--'MINE, YONDER!' and she looked toward the flower-
garlanded avenue--'HASTEN! ... IT IS TIME THOU WERT FAR HENCE! ...
RETURN TO THINE OWN STAR LEST ITS PORTALS BE CLOSED ON THEE
FOREVER AND THOU BE PLUNGED INTO DEEPER DARKNESS! SEEK THOU THE
FIELD OF ARDATH!--AS CHRIST LIVES, I WILL MEET THEE THERE!
FAREWELL!' With these words she left me, passing away, arrayed in
glory, treading on flowers, and ever ascending till she
disappeared! ... while I, stricken with a great repentance, went
slowly, as she bade me, down into the shadow, and a rippling
breeze-like melody, as of harps and lutes most tenderly attuned,
followed me as I descended. And now," said Alwyn, interrupting his
narrative and speaking with emphatic decision, "surely there
remains but one thing for me to do--that is, to find the 'Field of
Ardath.'"

Heliobas smiled gravely. "Nay, if you consider the whole episode a
dream," he observed, "why trouble yourself? Dreams are seldom
realized, ... and as to the name of Ardath, have you ever heard it
before?"

"Never!" replied Alwyn. "Still--if there is such a place on this