Must a little weep, Love,
(Foolish me!)
And so fall asleep, Love,
Loved by thee.”
Geoffrey heard them in his heart. Then they were gone, the vision of
Beatrice was gone, and suddenly he awoke.
Oh, what was this flood of inarticulate, passion-laden thought that
beat upon his brain telling of Beatrice? Wave after wave it came,
utterly overwhelming him, like the heavy breath of flowers stirred by a
night wind—like a message from another world. It was real; it was no
dream, no fancy; she was present with him though she was not there; her
thought mingled with his thought, her being beat upon his own. His
heart throbbed, his limbs trembled, he strove to understand and could
not. But in the mystery of that dread communion, the passion he had
trodden down and refused acknowledgment took life and form within him;
it grew like the Indian’s magic tree, from seed to blade, from blade to
bud, and from bud to bloom. In that moment it became clear to him: he
knew he loved her, and knowing what such a love must mean, for him if
not for her, Geoffrey sank back and groaned.
And Beatrice? Of a sudden she ceased speaking to herself; she felt her
thought flung back to her weighted with another’s thought. She had
broken through the barriers of earth; the quick electric message of her
heart had found a path to him she loved and come back answered. But in
what tongue was that answer writ? Alas! she could not read it, any more
than he could read the message. At first she doubted; surely it was
imagination. Then she remembered it was absolutely proved that people
dying could send a vision of themselves to others far away; and if that
could be, why not this? No, it was truth, a solemn truth; she knew he
felt her thought, she knew that his life beat upon her life. Oh, here
was mystery, and here was hope, for if this could be, and it _was_,
what might not be? If her blind strength of human love could so
overstep the boundaries of human power, and, by the sheer might of its
volition, mock the physical barriers that hemmed her in, what had she
to fear from distance, from separation, ay, from death itself? She had
grasped a clue which might one day, before the seeming end or
after—what did it matter?—lay strange secrets open to her gaze. She had
heard a whisper in an unknown tongue that could still be learned,
answering Life’s agonizing cry with a song of glory. If only he loved
her, some day all would be well. Some day the barriers would fall.
Crumbling with the flesh, they would fall and set her naked spirit free
to seek its other self. And then, having found her love, what more was
there to seek? What other answer did she desire to all the problems of
her life than this of Unity attained at last—Unity attained in Death!
And if he did not love her, how could he answer her? Surely that
message could not pass except along the golden chord of love, which
ever makes its sweetest music when Pain strikes it with a hand of fear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account