Pagina 891 di 896

The two stand in the fast-thinning throng of victims, but they

speak as if they were alone. Eye to eye, voice to voice, hand to

hand, heart to heart, these two children of the Universal Mother,

else so wide apart and differing, have come together on the dark

highway, to repair home together, and to rest in her bosom.

"Brave and generous friend, will you let me ask you one last

question? I am very ignorant, and it troubles me--just a little."

"Tell me what it is."

"I have a cousin, an only relative and an orphan, like myself,

whom I love very dearly. She is five years younger than I, and

she lives in a farmer's house in the south country. Poverty

parted us, and she knows nothing of my fate--for I cannot

write--and if I could, how should I tell her! It is better as it

is."

"Yes, yes: better as it is."