other were all the heights of the human spirit. For if one saved and
stored this mighty sex-energy, it became transmuted to the gold of
intellectual and emotional power. Such was the universal testimony
of the masters of the higher life--

"My strength is as the strength of ten
Because my heart is pure."

And this was no blind asceticism; it was simply a choosing of the
best. It was not a denial of love, but on the contrary a
consecration of love. Some day Thyrsis would meet the woman he was
to cleave to, and he would expect her to come to him a virgin; and
he must honor her as much--he must save the fire and fervor of his
young desire for his life's great consummation.

Such was the ideal; and these two men made a compact between them,
that once every month Thyrsis would write and tell of his success or
failure. And this amateur confessional was a mighty motive to the
lad--he knew that he could never tell a lie, and the thought of
telling the truth was like a sword hanging over him. There were
hours of trial, when he stood so close to the edge of the precipice
that this alone was what kept him clear.

Section 10. The summer had come, and Thyrsis had gone away to live
in a country village, and was reading Keats and Shelley, and the
narrative poems of Scott. There came a soft warm evening, when all
the world seemed a-dream; and he had been working hard, and there
came to him a yearning for the stars. He went out, and was strolling
through the streets of the village, when he saw a girl come out of
one of the houses. She was younger than he, graceful of form, and