And
when, down there among the mango-trees in the Terai, your lips first
touched hers and your arm pressed her to your side, the joy that was
yours was as the joy of the immortals."
Ram Lal paused, and Isaacs, who had been sitting by the table, stony and
dry-eyed, hid his face in his hands, clutching with his white fingers
among his bright black hair--all that seemed left to him of life, so
dead and ashy was his face. He remained thus without looking up, as the
old man continued.
"Think not, dear friend and brother, that I have come here to dwell
needlessly on your grief, to rouse again the keen agonies that have so
lately burned through and through you to the quick. I love you well, and
would but trace the past in order to paint the future. All that you felt
and knew in those short days of perfect love on earth was good and true
and noble, and shall not be forgotten hereafter. But last night closed
the second of your three destinies--as true love always must close on
earth--in bitter grief and sorrow because the one is gone before. Rather
should you rejoice, Abdul Hafiz, that she is gone in virgin whiteness,
whither ere long you shall follow and be with her till time shall chase
the crumbling world out over the broad quicksands of eternity, and
nought shall survive of all this but the pure and the constant and the
faithful to death.
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