I have bestowed all my worldly possessions on
the one man besides yourself to whom I owe a debt of gratitude--John
Westonhaugh. Had I known you less well, I would have made you a sharer
in my forsaken wealth. Only this I beg of you. Take this gem and keep it
always for my sake. No--do not look at it in that way. Do not consider
its value. It is to recall one who will often think of you, for you have
been a great deal to me in this month."
"I would I might have been more," I said, and it was all I could say,
for my voice failed me.
"Think of me," he continued, and the bright light shone through his face
in the dusk, "think of me, not as you see me now, or as I was this
morning, bowed beneath a great sorrow, but as looking forward to a
happiness that transcends this mortal joy that I have lost, even as the
glory of things celestial transcends the glory of the terrestrial. Think
of me, not as mourning the departed day, but as watching longingly for
the first faint dawn of the day eternal. Above all, think of me not as
alone but as wedded for all ages to her who has gone before me."
Ram Lal laid his hand on my arm and looked long into my eyes.
"Farewell for the present, my chance acquaintance," he said, "and
remember that in me you have a friend. The day may come when you too
will be in dire distress, beyond the skill of mere solitude and books to
soothe.
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