“I was not sorry. Clara was dead. My friend! My world was gone. I did not feel sorrow. Walking the streets, the innumerable streets my soul was as upon a journey through numberless bodies and states of myself. Numberless moments. And yet my soul was One. It was unchanged. It moved through the broken sea of my Disaster, it knew it was One.... “It is One now. Here I am.... Four years I have been here. Susan and Tessie I never saw again. Thelma came back. Dear Thelma. She has helped me. You know how. She saved ... I can’t guess by what means ... part of my furniture from the crash of the House. She is loyal like an animal. You do well, Samson Brenner, caring even in the way you care, for Thelma.... “Four years I have been here--“ Samson got up. Through the gloom of the heavy room he groped to the sideboard. He found another candle. He brought it back to the table. He lighted it with the other that was low, and set it alongside. “I have a daughter,” she said, “nearly as big as you.” --I want to speak! What can I say to this woman? It is hard, it will be braver to keep silent: not to break this stillness in which her will so strangely works--toward what? For her sake, I am still. “I am a failure. Look at me, Boy. Look at me. Look at Fanny Dirk. There is light enough to look.” He looked at her. But he saw only her eyes that were very strong and clear. “You have talked with me long,” she said. “Be quiet with me now.” They faced each other over the mellow table. It broadened, it narrowed: they were far and close. There was a wave in the room, making the table and the two flames and their own forms curve and refract, as if their eyes caught this reality of them together through some substance quick like flowing water. “Be still,” she whispered. The clock gave a stroke: “Half ... past ... eleven.” --He stays! --He has listened to my words. He has heard my will. Carnally he came. That is swept away. My will has cleaned him unto me. He stays. She watched him. Blond warm boy, with eyes tender and virgin: afraid of the brusque world. Boy with heart beating a measure beyond the reach of your eyes! --Shall I learn now? What Leon promised? what the dolorous years Failed to fulfill? Shall I learn now from you?... He has stayed and been kind. Soon he will go away, Forgetting Thelma. Will you leave me knowledge? --O I do not understand ... Why I have wanted, why I have wanted ... Why I have fallen and fallen, looking for God! You, Boy, won’t you go away And leave me Knowledge?... Her hands were upon the table. His hands were near her hands upon the table. Their eyes joined. He rested upon the yearning of her eyes. His mind was empty. --Go away. Yes. Before I have lost! Go, before your staying slays me, Boy. Go--leave me Knowledge! He did not stir. His eyes lay within her own as in a womb, resting omnipotent, knowing no act. She held him.