of the unseen, it is not well to call to heaven to show its glory, or
to hell to give us touch and knowledge of its yawning fires. Knowledge
comes soon enough; many of us will say that knowledge has come too soon
and left us desolate. There is no bitterness like the bitterness of
wisdom: so cried the great Koheleth, and so hath cried many a son of man
following blindly on his path. Let us be thankful for the dark places
of the earth--places where we may find rest and shadow, and the heavy
sweetness of the night. Seek not after mysteries, O son of man, be
content with the practical and the proved and the broad light of day;
peep not, mutter not the words of awakening. Understand her who would be
understood and is comprehensible to those that run, and for the others
let them be, lest your fate should be as the fate of Eve, and as the
fate of Lucifer, Star of the morning. For here and there beats a human
heart from which it is not wise to draw the veil--a heart in which many
things are dim as half-remembered dreams in the brain of the sleeper.
Draw not the veil, whisper not the word of life in the silence where all
things sleep, lest in that kindling breath of love and pain pale shapes
arise, take form, and fright you!

A minute or so might have passed when suddenly, and with a little start,
Jess opened her great eyes, wherein the shadow of darkness lay, and
gazed at him.

"Oh!" she said with a little tremor, "is it you or is it my dream?"

"Don't be afraid," he answered cheerfully, "it is I--in the flesh."

She covered her face with her hand for a moment, then withdrew it, and
he noticed that her eyes had changed curiously in that moment. They were
still large and beautiful as they always were, but there was a change.