as if I were a man who had escaped from a beleaguered city, and it
all depended upon me to carry the tidings and bring relief. I'm
their one hope, and if I fail them I'm a traitor, an accursed being!
They are ignorant and helpless, and their cry comes to me like some
great storm-wind of grief and despair. Oh, some day I mean to utter
words that will reach them--I can't fail! I can't fail!"

"No!" whispered Corydon. "You must not fail!"

They sat in silence for a while.

"How I wish that I could help you!" she said.

"Who can tell?" he answered. "Perhaps you may. A true friend is a
rare thing to find."

"I would do anything in the world to share in such a work."

"You really mean that? As hard as it is?"

"I would bear anything," she said. "I would go to the ends of the
earth for it. I would fling away the whole world--just as you have
done."

"Ah, but are you strong enough? Could you stand it?"

"I don't know that--I'm only a child. But I wouldn't mind dying."

And so it came. It came as the dawn comes, unheralded,
unheeded--spreading wider, till the day is there. Months afterwards